Culture & Education | Sunday 10 April, 2016 5:49 am |

After capturing the attention of Jeddah artists and art lovers with the opening of art exhibitions under the general rubric of this year’s theme, “Earth and Ever After,” on February 10, the 3rd annual Jeddah-based arts initiative, “21,39”, is now stretching its legs with a string of symposia and workshops scheduled through the end of April.

“Attendance at ‘21,39’ events has been high since we launched,” said Saudi Arts Council member, Mohamed Hafez, “which is a clear indicator that arts-based events must be constant components of life in today’s Jeddah. Now, as we have started our interactive gatherings for both established and up-and-coming artists, participants will have the opportunity to extend and refine their creative efforts or, perhaps, in some cases, discovering their creative potential.”

The event’s initial workshop stretched across two days, March 6 and 7, and was entitled, Negative and Cyanotype. Led by Syrian-born photographer Osama Esid who is now based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, the hands-on event focused on the chemistry behind cyanotypes, a photographic printing process that produces cyan blue prints. Used to create blueprints in the early 20th century, the process is often used in conjunction with photograms, camera-less photos made by placing objects on photosensitive paper and exposing the paper to light. Participants were encouraged to bring items from home that would produce intriguing images.

Three days later, on March 10, a ladies-only event, Urban Sketching, was held under the tutelage of Samiah M. Khashoggi, who is known in the Kingdom as a designer and interior decorator. The aim of the class was to shed light on the importance of compositional and perspective techniques when sketching urban scenes. 

Taking another type of urban perspective into consideration, renowned photographer Moath Al Ofi’s photographic exhibition, “The City of Madinah from the Sky,” will open its doors to the public on March 19. An environmental coordinator and supervisor at Dar AlHijra, Madinah, Al Ofi has been documenting the city of Madinah and its surrounding treasures over the past three years. He uses aerial photography and site documentation to provide a picture of Madinah’s ever-changing landscape and beauty.

On March 26, “21,39” changes its focus to the Kingdom’s prepubescent up-and-coming creative powerhouses, its children ages 7-11. Mashael Al-Shareef, arts educator and graphic and digital artist, will introduce children to the wonders of free sketching and capturing the world around them through artistic expression.

Wrapping up the workshop programs for the month of March is “Introduction to Graffiti, History and Its Famous Fonts,” presented by Mariam Abu-Shal, an award-winning practitioner of graffiti who participates in La Tour Paris, one of the world’s biggest graffiti exhibitions held annually in Paris. The four-day graffiti workshop – March 28 – 31 – will spend one day on the history of graffiti and its most prominent practitioner, one day on how to transform normal letters into graffiti script, one day on graffiti characters and how to draw them and one day during which participants can take to the wall and practice their newly acquired skills.

The strategic program partner of the Saudi Art Council for “21,39” Jeddah Arts is UBS. The main sponsor of the 3rd edition of the program is Van Cleef & Arpels, and Al Mansouria Foundation for Culture & Creativity, with Design Magazine being the media partner. The associate sponsors are Tamer Group, Quintessentially Group and Silver Spoon.