Qatar imports VCUarts students

Michael Todd
Assistant Spectrum Editor

In the past few decades, Doha, the capital of the Middle Eastern country Qatar, has undergone a metamorphosis. What was once a small pearl-fishing village has sprung into a metropolis, art center and tourist destination.

However, despite its rapid wealth accumulation, a majority of the city’s resources are imported, including much of its prominent art culture.

This spring, 19 faculty selected VCU students will be attending Tasmeem Doha, an international design conference. Organized and hosted by VCU’s sister campus in Doha, Qatar, the biannual conference is rooted in the belief that art and design are essential to the continued growth of this still transforming city. With this year’s sub-theme “Made In Qatar,” this conference aims to foster in Doha the idea of producing in addition to consuming.

Almost as young as the city’s wealth, the event is less than a decade old, with the upcoming conference anticipated to be the largest and most ambitious to date.

The year’s overall theme of “Hybrid Making,” aims to attract more than 500 students, scholars and practicing artist attendees from five different continents. Included in this estimation is the group of selected VCU graduate and undergraduate art students from the Richmond campus, with disciplines ranging from painting and sculpture to art history, art education and music. Each respective department implemented different methods of selecting students to attend the event.

For students such as Alex Curley, who was selected by the head of Art Education department, the email notification of their selection was the first time they heard of Tasmeem.

Junior Interior Design major Meredith Argenzio, however, first researched the conference and submitted an essay on the event and her qualifications in order to be considered. Some departments selected multiple students of various ages whereas others, such as music, are only sending one student.

“I was surprised that I was chosen because I thought that Tasmeem would not be interested in students from art education,” Curley said.

In past years, the event was only open to traditional design students, like Argenzio. The 2013 conference marks the time first students from other departments have been eligible for selection, both for budget and logistical purposes.

“I think that’s telling of the design world,” said Argenzio. “You can’t just be one kind of designer anymore, you have to be a jack of all trades. Design is relevant not just in the design field, but in education and things like dance. You’re definitely going to get input from an art education major that you wouldn’t get from an interior design major, and vice versa.”

These selected VCU students will travel to Doha to attend the conference, where they will participate in 12 student laboratories, each consisting of about 20 to 25 students from around the globe, including a large number of VCU Qatar students.

Each lab will be led by an international designer or artist, ranging from industrial designers to painters, with all members working towards the common goals of exploring the different means of making, as approached by the various disciplines studied by different group members.

VCU’s own Corin Hewitt, a sculpture professor, will be among the 12 selected designers, with the other designers traveling from around the world to lead the labs. Within the next few days, selected VCU students will submit their top five designer preferences in the hope that they will be able to work with an artist of their choice, which will be determined during the first week of November.

Each group will be working toward a final product of creating semi-permanent structures and/or performances. In the months preceding the conference, students will correspond with their designers and assist in lab preparation, and the research and planning of whatever project will be executed once abroad. Right now, however, designers are still doing their own research and finalizing their proposals.

All labs and artwork will be produced within the interior and exterior of the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

This past Wednesday, selected students attended a daylong training orientation to inform them of Doha’s history, culture, the aims of the trip they’ll be taking in the spring and the events of the conference.

Despite some more obvious cultural differences, students discovered that the city of Doha is a considerably westernized city.

Both Agrenzio and Curley agreed that meeting the VCUQ students was the most interesting part of the orientation. The pair knew little about the Qatar campus prior to the daylong training session.

During a lecture presented at the orientation, students were informed that Doha, Qatar is the largest investor in contemporary art in the world. During the design conference alone, students will have the opportunity to view as much as a dozen exhibitions, as well as a film festival that will be running at the same time.

VCU students will be spending a week at the conference, from March 10 to 17 during the spring semester.