From left: Choreographer Marc Brew, filmmaker Joel Simon, and Carole McFadden from the British Council.
By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: The Arts and Disability Festival, part of the programme of the Qatar-UK Year of Culture, has brought several renowned artists with disability to Doha. Organised by the British Council and the Ministry of Culture, the event aims to have at least two more editions, making it a three-year experience, an official from the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations said.
The Festival concludes tomorrow after a 15-day agenda which included events such as two performances by Marc Drew’s Company Fusional Fragments featuring percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The last of them will take place today at 8pm in the Drama Theater located in Building 16 of the Katara Cultural Village.
Both Drew and cartoonist Joel Simon, whose film Macropolis is also playing at the festival, participated in a talk yesterday coordinated by Carole McFadden, Drama and Dance Advisor for East Asia, China and Hong Kong and Near East North Africa at the British Council.
Artist Rachel Gadsden also attended the talk and shared her experience with children with disability in Qatar. The British painter coordinated four workshops for kids as part of the Unlimited Global Alchemy programme.
Gadsden committed herself to returning to Doha after learning that teachers are very interested in having their own workshops.
“This isn’t the end of it, it’s just the beginning”, she said, after learning that some of the local children with disability are very discouraged. “A girl said to me that there’s no hope for us”, explained the artist.
Over 100 youths took part in these classes. Following her experience in Doha, Gadsden, a multi-award winning artist who has a BA and MA in fine art and lived 20 years of her life in the Middle East, was certain that “it’s the beginning of a change about how disability is approached in the region.”
On his part, Marc Brew said that “at first people don’t expect to see someone with disability on the stage. But they just need to look outside the square box and asses what’s normal and what’s not”.
The Peninsula
