Technology And Online Access Finally Open The Doors For Arabic Culture 

posted on: Apr 29, 2016

Monty Munford 

Forbes

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
In the Western World, the Arab world gets a bad press. The whole region seems to be in permanent turmoil and probably because of its biggest asset; oil. The world has fought over it in the Middle East since it was ‘first’ discovered in Persia (now Iran) in 1908.

More than 4,000 years ago there were old pits used in Ardericca, near Babylon (modern-day Iraq), so brown gold is nothing new to the Arabs. This liquid, however, does not define the Arab world, it has given the rest of the world much, much more.

This fact seems to be overlooked by many who now see it as the hub for extreme terrorism and as a benighted land that is to be feared. However, as is usually the way, technology is beginning to shine a light on Arabic culture and how this, not war and oil, defines Arabs.

This light, however, is not yet a beacon because of the inertia in bringing Arabic culture online. At the recent (and excellent)  STEP conference in Dubai last month, the brilliant presenting skills of Sultan Al Qassemi, who certainly doesn’t hide his light behind a bushel, showed how he and his compatriots are trying to accelerate this process.

Al Qassemi is an MIT Media Labs Director’s Fellow and also the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, an independent initiative that assists intellectual development of art in the Arab region. During his presentation at STEP, he cited the increasing use of social media to spread the word about Arabic art, but also how Arab countries needed to bring their artists online as quickly as possible.

He cited an experience in 2014 that made him realise how important it was to do so when he received an email from the then curator of London’s Whitechapel Gallery, Omar Kholeif who wanted to organize  an exhibition there from the Barjeel Art Foundation collection of Arab art.

Source: www.forbes.com