Qatar Foundation promotes sustainability through public art
‘Using the Used: A Reflection of The Future of Our City’, a photography series unveiled by the World Innovation Summit for Education, gave commuters in Msheireb Metro Station the chance to learn about sustainability through the lens of youth in Qatar.
Created through a collaboration between the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) – an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF) – Qatar Rail, Photo Art Qatar (PA.Qatar), and QF partner university Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), the project aims to encourage young people to explore sustainability using creative mediums, specifically photography, that can translate into public spaces as forms of civic participation.
Farah Abel, Learning Ecosystems Policy Associate at WISE, said, “It is important for us to tap into the collective intelligence of our community and invite them to actively participate in reimagining public space as an opportunity for learning and creativity.
“The photography exhibition at Msheireb Metro Station is an example of how we, at WISE, are striving to create young champions of thought-leadership who can creatively engage in social topics in public forums.”
The photography series is part of WISE’s Doha Learning Days (DLD), a week-long initiative that takes place annually and aims to encourage the youth to become active members of their communities through meaningful activities co-curated in collaboration with relevant local and global learning ecosystems stakeholders.
This year’s program focused on the municipality of Al Wakra, who are constituents of UNESCO’S Learning City’s Network, with the city serving as the canvas for the photography workshops led by Photo Art Qatar.
PA.Qatar, which delivered workshops and activities for students between the ages of 15-25, brought in experts such as Reem Al-Sahlawi, Qatari environmental ethics researcher and advocate, and Abdulla Alqatami, environmental enthusiast and founder of Greener and Tadweer, leveraging various efforts being done locally around the cross-over of art, sustainability, and public space.
“When developing this project, we decided it was essential to provide students with as much knowledge as possible and how creatives are tackling such issues in their own projects,” said Ammar Alqamash, co-founder and exhibition curator, PA.Qatar.
The exhibition also features outputs from a workshop jointly conducted by VCUarts Qatar, WISE, and Qatar Academy Al Wakra (QAW) part of QF’s Pre-University Education. The session saw nine fashion design senior students from VCUarts Qatar mentor groups of school students from QAW to repurpose material found in their homes and create new objects, such as masks and face-shields, stationery holders, a miniature darkroom, notebooks, shoe-box homes for pets, and toys, indoor greenhouses, and a miniature foosball table.
Qatar Rail, as a strategic partner, played an important role in supporting the objective of leveraging public spaces to promote civic engagement around art and social topics, especially sustainability. The Doha Metro was designed with sustainability at the forefront of decision making – from society to the economy, to the environment – and strives to support national objectives.
For more information on QF’s initiatives and projects, please visit qf.org.qa
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