Art festival, heritage shows, Solidarity walk, fireworks
PARTICIPANTS PAY TRIBUTE TO FOUNDING FATHER AND SPREAD MESSAGE OF PEACE
The art community celebrated the country’s 47th National Day with 100 artists taking part in a live painting event at the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) in Dubai yesterday.
The sixth edition of the National Day Art Festival was organised by ZeeArts in collaboration with Wathiqati — Hamdan Bin Mohammad Heritage Centre and the Queen Elizabeth 2.
The event’s theme The vision of Zayed aimed to commemorate the Year of Zayed and pay tribute to the father of the nation who impacted the lives of many people and spread a message of peace and unity.
Each artist was given a canvas and challenged to use the four colours of the UAE flag — black, white, red and green to create their own paintings that symbolise the UAE and Shaikh Zayed’s vision.
“Shaikh Zayed’s message of unity is what we can see here today, we have artists of all nationalities and backgrounds celebrating this special day as a ‘thank you’ to the UAE,” said Zaahirah Muthy, founder of ZeeArts.
The art festival was first launched on December 2, 2011, with a UAE National Day event featuring 10 artists. Since then, ZeeArts has organised over 80 events in the UAE and the region to connect artists from across the globe and spread Shaikh Zayed’s message of peace.
Live painting
Artist Seren Al Khalaf, from Syria, is an Abu Dhabi resident who has taken part in the National Day art festival for three years.
“To me green symbolises life and white symbolises purity, so I am looking forward to mixing up the four colours and creating an abstract piece,” she said.
Another participant, Emirati Ahmad Al Awadi from Sharjah, expressed his joy at seeing people from all walks of life celebrating National Day.
“You can call Dubai an ‘international city,’ with so many different people and cultures. [His Highness] Shaikh Mohammad [Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai] has taught us to coexist and this event symbolises that message,” he said.
The artist of 20 years painted a canvas of Burj Al Arab using the four national colours.
Meanwhile, one of two international artists taking part in the event was Sana Hijri from Belgium, who has visited the UAE for the past four years to take part in the National Day Art Festival event.
Hijri, a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, said she admires the art scene in Dubai and will be attributing her abstract painting to the country’s achievements.