Qatar Museums (QM), in co-operation with Qatar Foundation’s QatarDebate Center, will host a virtual debate on February 23 to examine the role of public art in shaping culture.
This comes as part of its "continuous endeavour to enrich the cultural landscape in Qatar and spark important cultural discussions", QM has said in a statement.
Qatar Museums has invited members of the community to attend the virtual session and contribute to the debate that will be conducted in Arabic at 6pm on the given date. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85162220406 and the passcode is QMDebate.
On this occasion, QM’s director of the Public Art Department, architect Abdulrahman al-Ishaq, said: “Qatar Museums is pleased to collaborate with the QatarDebate Center to embark on this new experience about public art and its pivotal role in enriching the cultural scene in Qatar and across the globe. Qatar Museums is working to enhance national participation in important cultural dialogue, and to encourage future generations to explore their creativity and contribute to the art scene in Qatar.
"This debate falls within the framework of Qatar Museums’ anti-vandalism campaign, launched last year to promote public art preservation and encourage the wider community to share in the responsibility to take ownership of our public art. The debate will be conducted virtually, allowing unlimited audience participation. We invite the community to register and participate in this important discussion."
The debate consists of six main speeches, and two response speeches from each team after which the attendees vote to choose the winning team in their view. Afterwards, a discussion is open between attendees and the debating teams on points made in the debate.
Abdulrahman al-Subaie, the Outreach Programmes manager at QatarDebate, said: “We are happy to partner and renew co-operation with Qatar Museums, which is in tune with the Center, as it ensures enhancing dialogue and raising issues that motivate young people, instil the spirit of challenge in them and reinforce a positive image of society. This is what QatarDebate Center is seeking too through its programmes, which have proven our readiness to deal with new developments and highlight them as well as our role in the participation of young people.”
The affirmative debating team (for) will discuss the topics of the emergence of public art, its role in society, the development of culture and its consolidation through public art, artists’ interest in their community’s culture, and the importance of having public art as a part of a country's culture.
The negative team (against) will address the importance of public art as a means of expression and its role in society’s thought development, society’s identity, the formation of culture and the relation between society and art, as well as the importance of the presence of public art in terms of sparking discussion leading to development and constructive criticism.
The debate will see the participation of Moza al-Hajri, Ammar Yasser Mohamed Karkour, Abdullah Hamza Mohamed Sha'ar, Rahaf Khalid Abu Tarbush, Mohamed Hamzah al-Sioufi and Dana al-Darwish.
