BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
A unique community initiative to support Doha-based artists and an invaluable addition to the city’s burgeoning art landscape recently launched at Grand Hyatt Doha.
“The Corridor” is an initiative initiated by the hotel to provide a space to both professional and amateur artists to showcase their artworks to an audience.
Doha’s art scene is thriving, yet there is a dearth of galleries where these artists are given chance to showcase their creativity and “The Corridor” is one project which helps fill the void and directly exhibits how the private sector can assist in nurturing talent in this important area.
“This initiative is driven by Grand Hyatt as a way to contribute to the local art community. This provides an opportunity for local artists to have a space to exhibit their works,” Australian artist Pip Hoy, who is the art consultant and curator of The Corridor told Doha Today at the launch marked by the inaugural “Summer Exhibition” which runs for three months.
“We have a programme of events in place following a 12-month cycle. This is the first one. Summer Exhibition will be held every year in which all artists from Qatar are able to submit their pieces. We have selection panel that chooses which pieces will make it to the exhibition,” she explained.
The selection panel is composed of a historian particularly interested in the arts, an artist and an interior designer and entrepreneur, among others.
The inaugural expo which opened on Wednesday was a huge success warmly welcomed by artists and art enthusiasts. It proved Doha is home to many talented individuals from various cultural backgrounds but with the same interest in visual art.
For a short period of time, the exhibition had seen 45 submissions from which only 26 had been chosen to be for the exhibit due to space constraints.
“The works displayed tonight were created by 19 artists from 16 nationalities, a very broad range of artists with broad range of styles from acrylic to collage to fabric and three-dimensional pieces and so on.”
Since the artists hail from different cultural backgrounds, the works reveal a wide spectrum of themes and styles providing the viewers an enriching experience that cannot be found in run of the mill exhibitions.
“People here like art; they want to see art; they want to see more creative work so Hyatt would like to be part of that.”
Supported by the Hyatt Thrive initiative, this not-for-profit project benefits those in need as all profits from the sales of the works will go to charity.
“This initiative is not a profit-making venture. All the profits will go to “Room to Read”, a charity Hyatt supports aimed at helping children in poor countries learn to read.”
The Corridor is open to the entire community and all nationalities, professional and emerging artists and hobbyists who would like to showcase their works in public, she added.
“We plan to have around five solo and group exhibitions every year but definitely we will have Summer Exhibition that will run for three months.”
The thriving art scene in Qatar is evident and this newly launched project is set to add another layer into it in its own way.
“The local art scene is vibrant and growing. There’s a lot of challenges still to be overcome. This initiative just adds another dimension and another opportunity that really helps local artists. I think in any country you have to have a grassroots art scene and this gallery space offers a small way of contributing to that, small but can make a lot of difference.”
The Peninsula
