Posts in Features
Meet the Artist: Kamal Boullata
Meet the Artist: Kamal Boullata

Born in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem in 1942, Boullata went on to study fine art at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome in 1965. When war broke out at home in 1967, he was in Beirut and was not able to return to Palestine. He lived the rest of his life in exile moving from Morocco to the US – where he received an MFA from Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC in 1971, then to France and eventually to Germany, where he lived out the rest of his life. However, the city of Jerusalem was continuously alive in his heart. He once said: "I keep reminding myself that Jerusalem is not behind me, it is constantly ahead of me."

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Features, Editor's PicksAnna SeamanDubai Collection, Artist, PaintingComment
Dubai: Global Capital for the Creative Economy, HE Hala Badri Shares her Insight and Vision
Dubai: Global Capital for the Creative Economy, HE Hala Badri Shares her Insight and Vision

In April 2019, Her Excellency Hala Badri was appointed as the Director General of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority [Dubai Culture] by a royal decree from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, following more than 20 years upon an impressive path across dynamic business sectors critical to the UAE’s economic development: telecommunications, oil and gas, media and real estate. Since taking over that vital role, Her Excellency has paved the way for a cultural revolution across the city, which, most recently, has taken hold in the announcement of Al Quoz Creative Zone - a new hub for creative businesses, including those involved in the visual arts, cinema, music and cultural heritage.

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Features, Editor's PicksAnna Seamaninterview, profile, Al Quoz, Dubai Culture, Artists, Downtown Design, Dubai Design DistrictComment
For The Love of Dance: Dance Reflections Supports Creativity All Around the World
For The Love of Dance: Dance Reflections Supports Creativity All Around the World

When an all-male cast of 13 virtuoso dancers from Algeria and Morocco took to the stage atThe Arts Center in New York University Abu Dhabi, audiences were thrilled by the stunning display of contemporary dance that combined capoeira, martial arts and urban-style street dance with powerful imagery evocative of orientalist paintings and the stone filigree of Islamic architecture.

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Features, ReviewsAnna Seamandance, Yaa Samar, Theatre, Culture, Abu Dhabi
Changing States
Changing States

Inspired by desert rose crystal forma- tions, Moufida Mohideen designed   a sculptural bookcase, titled Ascension, as a symbol of everlasting growth. Mohideen, a student of interior archi- tecture and design at the University of Sharjah, used contrasting raw materials—damas wood and mother of pearl—for the design, which won the ninth edition of the Van Cleef & Arpels Middle East Emergent Designer Prize.

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Profiles, FeaturesAnna Seamandesign, Moufida Mohideen, Van Cleef & Arpels Middle East Emergent Designer Prize, Tashkeel, University of Sharjah, Alin Constantin Photography
Enter the Digital Era, How NFTs are Impacting Art, Creativity and Beyond
Enter the Digital Era, How NFTs are Impacting Art, Creativity and Beyond

In 2021, Collins Dictionary announced that NFT was word of the year, which was a rather curious situation for a word that isn’t even a word. NFT is an acronym that stands for non-fungible token. Collins defines it as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible.” The rise of NFTs in popular discourse over the course of the past 12 months has been meteoric and frankly unprecedented especially given that the vast percentage of people had never heard of one before March 2021. This month two things happened to catapult them into the headlines. First was Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey selling the first ever tweet as an NFT for USD 2.9 million and the second was the sale of an artwork by a previously unknown artist called Beeple whose digital collage sold at Christie’s for USD 69 million. Of course, this was not the birth of NFTs. Actually, the first ever piece of art minted [this is the term for making an NFT] on a blockchain was in 2014 but March 2021 will go down in history as a watershed moment.

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FeaturesAnna SeamanNFTs, Metaverse, art, digital art, Technology
Write from the Heart: Seddiqi Holding's mentorship programme for young writers
Write from the Heart: Seddiqi Holding's mentorship programme for young writers

In March 2022, when the 14th edition of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature got underway, so did the first year-long edition of First Chapter, the ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship. The programme, the first of its kind in the region, is a platform for aspiring writers from the UAE aiming to identify and nurture emerging writing talent, elevating it to an international standard and bringing it to global attention.

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FeaturesAnna SeamanSeddiqi Holding, Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, mentorship, Writing