On November 10, I attended the tenth annual Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. Each year this event strives to encourage and promote civility, empathy, understanding, and awareness of contemporary issues. This year, I had the pleasure of listening to Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Art Foundation. She spoke about arts, culture, and community in the Emirate of Sharjah.
Born in the Emirate of Sharjah, a state in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Al Qasimi is the daughter of the emir. Despite her traditional and conservative upbringing, she has always been passionate about art and contemporary culture. It comes as no surprise that Al Qasimi is now recognized internationally as one of the greatest advocates for arts and culture in the UAE.
In fact, she has spent the last 13 years working; as a curator, an artist, and an artistic director on several boards internationally to promote worldwide recognition of the Sharjah Art Foundation within the art community. Furthermore, she is now the head of the Sharjah Biennial: a contemporary art festival, which her father created when she was 13 years old because of his deep interest in the preservation and education of his culture. In more recent years, Al Qasimi’s contemporary infusion has given the Sharjah Biennial the worldwide appeal it so rightfully deserves.
Once an industrial centre for trade and often overshadowed by neighbouring metropolis Dubai, Sharjah is now an accomplished cultural institution. Al Qasimi is not only a product of this artistic hub, but she also actively plays a large role in its redefinition and its great success.
Al Qasimi constantly challenges the boundaries between what is traditional or conventional and what is exciting and experimental. She strongly believes in making free art education accessible to the entire community by promoting better educational resources. She also strives to preserve historical landmarks by eco-preservation and installation. The Sharjah Art Foundation seeks out old homes, buildings, and warehouses that are scheduled for demolition then funds the use of these sites to host gallery openings and showcase local artists. “Art in the city is important,” she states, “because when people are well informed, it brings them together.”
The lecture especially emphasised the troubling lack of common knowledge about Arabic art history. Al Qasimi strives to form a better international understanding of a culture that is so poorly represented and so clearly disregarded. Currently, Al Qasimi is writing a book on this same issue because, as she states, “It is necessary.” She longs for a fair representation of how incredible the art of the Emirates is and criticises its practical non-existence in the art world.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Arabian art, she notes, is that people assume it will always be flashy and over-the-top. She claims that viewers are always shocked by the employment of recycled materials in a lot of the art she curates.
Al Qasimi works very closely with the artists, as she highly values the preservation of her culture’s art history. However, when not on business, she often visits artists just to sit and talk, demonstrating her dedication to inclusion and authentic representation.
She calls Sharjah a “home for many cultures,” much like Toronto. Al Qasimi states that the key to connecting works of art across several different nations is, in fact, through politics. She remarks that artists from all over the world engage with similar topics and that these political issues are what bring them together, instead of diversity being the primary focus.
That being said, Al Qasimi constantly reminds us that she does not desire international attention. Her biggest goal, she says, is to encourage the average civilian to take the time to look at local art exhibitions and to take advantage of what Sharjah has to offer.
She tells us, “[Her] greatest joy is seeing young children coming off the streets to attend biennials, film screenings and gallery openings. When they express interest and they continue to come back year after year,” she says, “[she feels] very proud of the work she is doing in Sharjah.”
During the Q&A at the end of her lecture, she told a warming anecdote about an art show she curated. Al Qasimi was answering questions about the gallery when a TV reporter approached her about an interview. Before answering any questions, she noticed a group of children in the corner looking at one of the pieces. Uninterested in accepting the interview herself, she passed it off to one of her associates. She then went up to the kids and began explaining the exhibition to them instead. Now, several years later, she is pleased to see these same children, all grown up, still attending the events hosted by the Sharjah Art Foundation.
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi delivered a moving and thoroughly informative lecture that, for me, really put in perspective how Eurocentric our education system is. I left this event with a whole new understanding of arts and culture that I’m sure inspired others as much as it did me.
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