Delray Beach, Florida
Nancy Schaffer of the Tribeca Film Festival recently told The New York Times that Qatar is a vastly more sophisticated haven for culture and arts than most other Persian Gulf nations. “Doha is much less flashy and more sophisticated than some of its Arab counterparts,” she said.
Dubai should take notice of how to do things the right way, at least in this context. Money buys most anything, but credit for doing so with acumen and some minimal measure of class owes in large part to Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah and her daughter Sheikha al Mayassa. It turns out that the Duke-educated Sheikha al Mayassa interned at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Productions, without ever telling her Tribeca employers at the time that she was one of the wealthiest young women in the world. The Sheikhas' imprint is all over the nation, which we discovered there firsthand last year at Education City as well as in a raft of art galleries in Doha’s Souk Waqif. Of course, the new I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art is now the signature building on Doha’s corniche and DeNiro expects to open a Tribeca Film Festival there soon. It sure beats Dubai’s indoor ski slope.
How interesting it is to learn that Roger Mandle, the former Rhode Island School of Design president, is now that executive director of the Qatar Museums Authorities. Roger helped us develop and launch the Creative Economy Council in the late ‘90s. I wondered what had happened to Roger after discovering the compelling new RISD president several weeks ago, the new-media guru John Maeda. Maeda's integrated background in computer science, graphic design and fine arts coupled with his most recent stint as an associate director at MIT's Media Lab will serve RISD well.
What I like so much about Maeda, and what we tried to communicate with the Creative Economy Council with only marginal results, is that there is no longer any line between creative and commercial enterprise. Much to the detriment of our culture and economy, old stereotypes linger that place "the arts" in the non-profit sector somehow divorced from all the creative energies found in technology, new-media, publishing, advertising, music, cuisine and so much more. Maeda gets this point because he knows no other way. One suspects that Sheikha al Mayassa, Roger Mandle and their colleagues in Doha get it, too. We need to do a much better job of "getting it" in New England, too.
Nancy Schaffer of the Tribeca Film Festival recently told The New York Times that Qatar is a vastly more sophisticated haven for culture and arts than most other Persian Gulf nations. “Doha is much less flashy and more sophisticated than some of its Arab counterparts,” she said.
Dubai should take notice of how to do things the right way, at least in this context. Money buys most anything, but credit for doing so with acumen and some minimal measure of class owes in large part to Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah and her daughter Sheikha al Mayassa. It turns out that the Duke-educated Sheikha al Mayassa interned at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Productions, without ever telling her Tribeca employers at the time that she was one of the wealthiest young women in the world. The Sheikhas' imprint is all over the nation, which we discovered there firsthand last year at Education City as well as in a raft of art galleries in Doha’s Souk Waqif. Of course, the new I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art is now the signature building on Doha’s corniche and DeNiro expects to open a Tribeca Film Festival there soon. It sure beats Dubai’s indoor ski slope.
How interesting it is to learn that Roger Mandle, the former Rhode Island School of Design president, is now that executive director of the Qatar Museums Authorities. Roger helped us develop and launch the Creative Economy Council in the late ‘90s. I wondered what had happened to Roger after discovering the compelling new RISD president several weeks ago, the new-media guru John Maeda. Maeda's integrated background in computer science, graphic design and fine arts coupled with his most recent stint as an associate director at MIT's Media Lab will serve RISD well.
What I like so much about Maeda, and what we tried to communicate with the Creative Economy Council with only marginal results, is that there is no longer any line between creative and commercial enterprise. Much to the detriment of our culture and economy, old stereotypes linger that place "the arts" in the non-profit sector somehow divorced from all the creative energies found in technology, new-media, publishing, advertising, music, cuisine and so much more. Maeda gets this point because he knows no other way. One suspects that Sheikha al Mayassa, Roger Mandle and their colleagues in Doha get it, too. We need to do a much better job of "getting it" in New England, too.