The arts in Qatar

THank you for the information--- I am feeling better about my creative outlet!!!

Kindness is Timeless it only takes a moment to give someone your love.....India Arie

Just come across some dance clubs on page 65 of the latest 'Marhaba' magazine, which you'll find in hotels, supermarkets and probably the Duty Free Shop at Arrivals. Ballet, modern, jazz, country, latin, Indian Classical Line and Scottish are all mentioned.

Also, Hannibal, be assured that there are rock and jazz bands here, and commercial as well as unpaid opportunities to perform. check out http://www.qatarmusic.co.nr/ and join the Doha Players on arrival.

Cheers for that, Niceguy. My wife will be very happy to here about that!

Fingers still crossed...

Sorry, forgot to mention visual arts. They're quite lively here, in a quiet, underpublicised way. Some local artists are very good and have shows in the few private galleries; and a couple of western artists are sufficiently organised to hold shows, too. Exhibitions are mostly small scale, though. When you arrive, cruise around and find the galleries.

Local photographers, by contrast, are shite.

Further to Helloqatar's comment, the Doha Players do indeed provide opportunities for dance and poetry but not on a regular basis; and as the last shows of summer are already in rehearsal, I don't suppose there'll be a dance performance opportunity this side of October. Though there might be a 'cabaret' (actually a variety show) in May or June. If you were to join, you'd be welcome to initiate either a dance workshop (not previously attempted) and/or a poetry evening (frequently attempted and often successful). Thing is, the Players is a participatory club, and anyone can set a ball rolling.

Yours Britishly and inebriatedly

For the arts, VCU in Education City seems to have something going on most of the time.

For music and performing arts, the Doha Players would be a good start. A little British and inebriated at times but great fun and very active.

http://www.dohaplayers.com/main.htm

My wife and I are possibly moving to the Doha area (depending on my pending reference checks) My wife is a painter (very talented, I might add!), and she is very interested in the "Doha art scene". We have been in the UAE for some time, and the arts community is quite good out here, although it too is often overshadowed by the "modern wonders" the Emirates like to display. I hope that she will be able to network with the artists in Qatar and maybe if there is no arts community, people like jbaby and my wife can be the pioneers.

My fellow teachers and I have been playing in a rock cover band for the past 5 years, and although we are still holding on to our day jobs, we have gotten quite good (or so our wonderfully supportive and often inebriated friends tell us) and I have found that it is not enough to sit back and complain about the lack of music, art or activities, you need to make a difference. Hopefully, if I hear back about the job, my wife and I can try to do our part to make things better. So, any experienced, aspiring, budding or closet artists or musicians out there, here’s to giving these posters more to talk about.

Hi jbaby!

They have a school of design here ,Virginia CommonWealth University in Qatar..that's really cool if your interested because they always have community classes in a multitude of art related topics.they also have a few visual arts centers that u can visit/participate in...as butterfly said they don't really have dance here that i'm aware of...i think the Doha Players(theartre) is available if you are into the preforming arts.lili.

Hi Jbaby

I don't think there is much of a dancing culture in Qatar :(, although we were recently treated to a International Dancing Show, which sadly I missed.

If you like modern architecture, then you will be amazed to see new funky buildings rising to the sky along the corniche. Other than that, I haven't seen much art in Qatar.

We have a "poetry" section in this forum. Please share one of your poems with us.

All the best