Adliya – Bahrain, January 31st 2013.

 

ABCAD Art Center and Albareh Art Gallery, have recently launched the “Artist Leadership Programme” initiative that ran at ABCAD from January 17th through March 2013.

 

ABCAD (Albareh Centre for Art, Design and Visual Culture) is an initiative of Albareh Art Gallery and operates under a fully independent space. The centre offers a variety of programmes addressing different fields such as contemporary art and design. The initiative was born out of the pressing need to further develop an scene for contemporary art and design in Bahrain, encouraging local artists for wider participation and to make a positive contribution to art and design.

 

ALP is an initiative conceived as a community-centered project, focusing on the development of general skills and visual capabilities for artists based in the Kingdom of Bahrain with the sole aim to contribute to the development and re-positioning of the contemporary art scene in Bahrain and to reclaim the country’s position as a cutting-edge cultural hub in the Gulf region.

 

Kuwaiti-Dutch artist and curator Mo Reda has been commissioned to mentor and coach eighteen of Bahrain’s artists while working with Albareh to programm the ALP initiative that included: artist workshops, “Preludes” exhibitions and ended with one large group exhibition titled “ Displacement”. The group exhibitions commenced with a series titled “Preludes”. The concept, curated by Mo Reda, envisioned to work together with a group of Bahraini artists, to produce weekly events and exhibitions to celebrate and showcase the individual process undergone by each artist. Each of these preludes offered the audience a visual insight into the world and potential of the artists.

 

The program ended this edition with a carefully curated exhibition “Displacement” and tackled some of the needs of Bahrain’s contemporary art scene.

 

 “Displacement” opened on March 28, 2013 and showcased the works of 18 Bahrain’s artists whereby each artist expressed his/her own interpretations of the exhibition concept. The process in itself pushed these emerging artists further by challenging them to outreach and stretch their own creative process while confronting the concept of Displacement.

This exhibition is an important event that deserves to be closely followed by those interested in the development of independent contemporary art practices in Bahrain as well as the development of the local artistic talent.

It is without a doubt that small-scale, personal initiatives such as this have the utmost meaningful impact on Bahrain’s emerging art scene.

Tamkeen and the Economic Development Board of Bahrain support this project.

For further information, please visit http://www.albareh.com/ or contact programmes@albareh-abcad.com. More details can also be found by joining the “Albareh Art Gallery” page on Facebook.