Describe a person who doesn’t like any form of art – for sure you wouldn’t have any words for this. This is a sweeping statement but you’ll have to agree that there’s no one in this world that doesn’t appreciate art in its different forms: Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, Music… the list goes on.
Exploring avenues on where or how to transform your passion into a lucrative measure however is a different picture but definitely not impossible. This is why Sana Bagersh, founder of Tamakkan, held a seminar banking on the different fields of the arts not just through seasoned artists within the Gulf but also about the patronage of corporate firms.
“There are two things that transcend any cultural and geographical barrier and transcend any material value. The reason why is that they represent the core of our spiritual and bodily existence. Those two things are the arts and health.” – Iva Fattorini
Iva Fattorini, Chair of Global Arts & Medicine Institute, Executive Board Office at Cleveland Clinic, shared how the arts are used for therapeutic measures as well as a tool to provide a positive impact towards visitors. The research from Cleaveland Clinic shows the importance of the arts when integrated with modern medicine. A fun fact was that some of her colleagues in medicine also excelled in the arts specifically in music so they managed to provide an avenue not just for entertainment but also as a therapeutic experience for their visitors and patients.
“The proper (mindset) to enter into art is thinking that you can do absolutely anything. If that’s the first and last thing you think about and you’re asking yourself why is it that I love what I do; then probably you should be doing arts for a living.” – Beno Saradzic
Emmy-Nominated Time Lapse cinematographer Beno Saradzic narrated the story on how he started out as a producer then “turning the tables” as he switched roles from producer to a cinematographer and photographer. His Emmy-nominated time lapse video: “Beyond” shows the city of Abu Dhabi and Dubai in majestic and breath-taking viewpoints with the musical score made by the award winning composer Vladimir Persan that leaves a brilliant sensation to the ears when heard with proper audio devices. Watch and see for yourself how Beno managed to amaze the crowd.
“With Abu Dhabi 360, you can view any of the buildings around. It shows a perspective that you generally don’t see.” – Mirjana DeLaey
Executive Producer Mirjana DeLaey told the audience about the beginnings of the Abu Dhabi 360 project – the challenges she encountered as this project had never been before, how she learned about the team of photographers from Airpano and how it took a lot of patience, courage and determination to set it up. In the future she hopes that the 360 project would be expanded to cover concepts such as how the city of Abu Dhabi was developed, a museum integration experience, a 360 digital album, and a point-of-view perspective. DeLaey also expressed intentions of covering Al Ain, Sharjah, other places within the Emirates and hopefully, around the world as well.
“The (Shoes) concept came from a conversation with a friend about wanting to buy shoes but there’s a feeling of remorse for the Syrian refugees about the winter. My friend said: “Don’t all women have lots of shoes?” which gave the idea on how to present an analogy of the shoe.
– Charlis Cunningham
Charlie Cunningham and Michelle “True” Francois of Futuristic Verses shared their pieces of the excerpt from “Shoes: The Monologues”. “Shoes” tells a narrative of people coming from different walks of like and how something simple like a shoe can be so meaningful in various aspects. “Shoes” was shown last November 19th and 20th at the MoxieZone.
From L to R Mirjana DeLaey, Iva Fattorini, Michelle “True” Francois, Beno Saradzic, Maysoon Barber, Charlis Cunningham, Sana Bagersh, Khalid Khouri
The night ended with an interactive panel discussion for the audience joined by the speakers, Business Director Maysoon Barber of the Fatima Bint Hazza Foundation, TwoFour54 Head of Ibtikar Commercial Khalid Khouri and moderated by Sana Bagersh. Bagersh also gave out tokens of appreciation for the speakers and held a raffle for the audience.
