2022 Year in Review Report by QatarAmerica

2022 YEAR IN REVIEW REPORT

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About QAIC

Letter from the Chairperson

Letter from the Executive Director

Telling Stories through the Arts

Education: Fostering Dialogue and Partnerships, from Sustainability to Fashion

Fellow Profile

QAIC by the Numbers

Looking Ahead

Thank You

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ABOUT QAIC

Founded in 2017, the Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) is an independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that creates, curates, and executes programs and research that amplify the prominence of all forms of art and culture in society. QAIC cultivates artistic expression and cultural dialogue from the United States, Qatar, and the larger Arab and Islamic worlds. QAIC serves as a vital hub to convene artists, curators, storytellers, creatives, scholars and academics, connecting them with a global network that extends beyond its physical space in Washington, D.C. Through art exhibitions, educational programs, scholarly research and cross-cultural partnerships, QAIC provides interactive experiences in an inclusive environment to celebrate and appreciate art and culture.

Culture is a major dimension in our lives, with the unique power to bring all humans together. It informs and shapes who we are as individuals, communities and nations. The people of both the United States and Qatar share a deep appreciation of the diverse expressions of culture, which enjoy the support of all cross-sections of society. QAIC is in a unique position to develop meaningful expressions and experiences, functioning as a bridge spanning the cultures of the United States, Qatar and the larger Arab and Islamic worlds. To improve cross-cultural understanding, QAIC creates inclusive experiences that highlight humanity’s similarities while delighting in the diversity of our differences. QAIC seeks to become a trusted partner and art and culture catalyst by increasing awareness, creating harmony and fostering human creativity in society.

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letter from the chairperson

It’s hard to look back over 2022 with perfect joy. The world has not been an easy place lately, and many of us have done and continue to do our part to address the woes we observe. One of the things that the Qatar America Institute for Culture—QAIC (pronounced cake) prides itself in over the past year is the cultural distraction we provide to enhance curiosity, learning, and interest in the culture and heritage of the Middle East, particularly Qatar including architecture and design, museums, filmmaking, new visual arts, and the culinary arts.

These subjects are just a few of what we have offered this past year as our audiences have embraced new knowledge and participated in programs both virtually and by their physical presence at our historic headquarters near Dupont Circle. These programs also look at issues in society, seeking to expand the lives of those who engage with us, and those who hope to discover and find new pathways.

As we continue to build our audience and our friends through membership and events, we hope to see you often and we hope you will explore the exchanges we have facilitated in the last year that have broadened the perspectives of our IMPART artists, and all those who have participated in our exchange programs. Stand with us and join us in increasing awareness of the positive, and the diversity of our message through engagement.

Peggy Loar Chairperson Board of Directors

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letter from the executive Director

Dear Friends of QAIC,

I’m thrilled to share with you our 2022 Year in Review. This year’s report highlights QAIC’s biggest milestones this year, in our own words and those of our partners. In 2022, QAIC engaged and strengthened the connections between our audiences, partners, and the artists we support both at our headquarters in Washington, D.C. and in Doha, Qatar.

In 2022, QAIC welcomed more than 1,700 visitors to our public programs in D.C. and in Doha. As a hub for creating, curating and executing programs, QAIC amplified the voices of more than 77 emerging and midcareer artists, filmmakers, designers, and creatives through exhibition and speaking opportunities, film screenings, public programs, along with a delegation that took emerging American artists to experience the sights, sounds and culture of Doha.

Our programs and exhibitions in 2022 engaged with our year-long theme of sustainability in the arts, the exchange of culture across the Silk Road through music and celebrated the cultural side of the World Cup. In doing so, QAIC collaborated with numerous partners in the U.S. and in Doha including the Doha Film Institute, the Fashion & Diplomacy Project, the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Qatar Museums, the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative, the Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation and more, to celebrate the diversity of Qatari, American and the Arab World’s culture through music, film, art and food.

As we look ahead in 2023, we are grateful to our sponsors, members and visitors who make our mission to amplify all forms of art and culture possible. We invite you to join them in supporting our work by visiting us and supporting our work to engage broad audiences through educational exhibitions and programs.

With gratitude,

Fatima Al-Dosari

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telling stories through the arts

Culture is multidimensional, and so does QAIC strive to have our programs reflect the same and 2022 saw new and creative means to do so. Art as a representation of culture is at the core of our programming, and art can be a three-dimensional experience. We didn’t want our audience to just look at art; we wanted them immersed in sound, smell, and taste as well.

The Perfumery Museum, which celebrated its oneyear anniversary in May of last year, was woven into our programs throughout 2022, and was the source of inspiration for many additional endeavors. We launched our first public workshop with DIY Scent Studio, inviting guests to learn about the craft of fragrance making, and providing the opportunity to create their own. At our IMPART Summit: Congress for Creatives, we collaborated with the Institute for the Art of Olfaction (IAO) to present an engaging panel featuring experts from around the country. This distinguished panel discussed the trends and innovations in sustainability in the fragrance industry. We look forward to further partnering with IAO in 2023, bringing a cultural delegation to Qatar as well as for a symposium hosted at our headquarters in fall 2023.

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“The Perfumery Museum is a form of art that ignites emotions and sparks memories.”

Nada Darwish, Programs Officer, QAIC

Guests study the scent chart in QAIC’s Perfumery Museum

Scent is tied to taste and memory, and we decided to have some fun with it in other ways as well. The Alif Ba exhibition, first hosted at the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C., introduces young audiences to the Arabic alphabet. Under QAIC’s guardianship, it traveled to two of our program partners in the U.S. First, it stopped at Western Kentucky University, where two of the students in the Arabic Language Program were QAIC fellows in early 2022. Next, it visited Al Bustan Seeds of Culture in Philadelphia, PA. Along the way, QAIC brought our own component to complement the alphabet: corresponding spices and scents, one for each letter. As a visitor was seeing and listening to the letter, they could incorporate the smell of it as well.

In our other exhibitions, we played with the other senses, none more so than in our flagship program, Cultural Crossings: Exchanges Beyond the Silk Road. This playful new program used the narrative of the Silk Road to explore shared cultural heritage along the many countries of the land and sea routes. For 2022, we kicked off with music, hosting several concert events that delighted and educated our guests. The events included oud and sitar demonstrations, ensemble concerts, and in-depth instrument workshops. Our exhibition featured several instruments native to the Arab World and Asia, including qanuns, ouds, sitar and pipa. Altogether, Cultural Crossings told a story that spanned centuries and endures in numerous traditions today.

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“The Alif Ba exhibit is helping to diversify our community, to help them to learn about Arab culture.”

John Sunnygard, Associate Provost for Global Learning and International Affairs, Western Kentucky University

Families listening to the sounds of the Arabic language at the Alif Ba exhibition in Philadelphia Guests enjoying the Cultural Crossing: Exchanges Beyond the Silk Road exhibition at QAIC

“These ouds are very important instruments of historical value, and also an eye opener to so many of our fellow Americans who have not had the chance to visit the Arab world.”

Samer Ali, Syrian Music Preservation Initiative

The exhibitions hosted in 2022 told many other stories as well. The works of four American artists joined the works of their four Qatari counterparts in QAIC’s first traveling exhibition, Women of the Pandemic, hosted at the Katara Cultural Village. With these pieces, the artists’ thoughts, beliefs and feelings traveled with them. Once again, calligraphy proved to be a powerful artistic medium expressed at QAIC several times in 2022, most notably in the Living Line, Living Legacy exhibition and symposium co-produced by the Reed Society for the Sacred Arts.

The FOCI photography program returned for its third year. The submissions told a powerful story about the fragility and beauty of water, tying in with our 2022 theme of sustainability and the arts.

Finally, the stories of the individual and the collective were also on display in our first exhibition for the inaugural IMPART Artist Grant awardees, Josh Berer, Nia Alexander Campbel and Patricia Daher.

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(From left to right) Alexandra Sherman, Anna Davis and Jordanne Wine, in front of their exhibition at QAIC Guests tour QAIC’s FOCI exhibition

eDucation: fostering Dialogue anD partnerships, from sustainability to fashion

We are often reminded that QAIC is not alone in its mission to promote and spread the art and culture of the Gulf region. Our partnerships enable us to host exhibitions and educational events, widening our community reach. Our enduring partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and VCUarts Qatar saw multiple visits over the year to campuses in both the U.S. and Qatar. This provided the opportunity to hear from Bouthayna Al Muftah and other VCU alum artists during Qatar Week in Richmond, VA in September 2022. Next year, we excitedly look forward to another joint exhibition effort when Research Labs moves from the VCUarts Richmond’s Anderson Gallery to QAIC’s headquarters.

Other arts and cultural organizations have also proven to be invaluable partners in our programming. QAIC partnered with prestigious museums such the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York, N.Y., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Freer and Sackler Galleries (NMAA) in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MIA), to celebrate Islamic art and culture in various ways. QAIC participated in a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the MET’s Department of Islamic Art galleries, and an Eid Al-Fitr festival at NMAA while Fashioning an Empire: Safavid Textiles from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, was exhibited at NMAA. In collaboration with the Reed Society for the Sacred Arts, QAIC hosted both an exhibition and our first symposium celebrating the art of calligraphy, featuring master artisans from around the world. Our newly launched monthly Film Fridays were made possible by collaborations and partnerships with The Turkish Coffee Lady and the American Turkish Association, the Diplomacy and Fashion Project, and the Doha Film Institute, just to name a few. The films touched on topics including sustainability, fashion and diplomacy, various forms of culture across the Arab and Islamic world and featured young talent from Qatar and beyond. Our sustainability theme played a role in new partnerships as well.

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CULTURE

VCUarts Qatar alum Fatma Al Jaidah, Bouthayna Al Muftah and Aisha Al Zaini speaking with one another at VCU Richmond about their involvement in the 2022 FIFA World Cup QatarTM Calligraphy artwork on display at the Living Line, Living Legacy exhibition Fashioning an Empire: Safavid Textiles from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MIA) at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Freer and Sackler Galleries (NMAA) in Washington, D.C. The QAIC team tour Common Good City Farm’s space in Washington, D.C.

This past spring, the QAIC team visited Common Good City Farm to learn about their mission and provided a contribution to their youth garden. As part of our QAIC Cares program, we supported the organization’s Youth Garden and LEAF (Learning for the Environment, Agriculture and Food) after-school program, which provides elementary-aged youth an opportunity to engage with gardening and foster community building. In the fall, QAIC hosted and supported the Mokha Institute, whose mission is to improve the quality of coffee produced in Yemen by empowering coffee-producing communities with production best practices, the best of industry training and education, and holistic livelihood support. Finally, in December, QAIC contributed a painting by Qatari artist Haifa AlKhuzai to Celebrating Women: An Art Exhibition organized by the Wilson Center, featuring artists from the around the world in support of the Global 16 Days Campaign against Gender-Based Violence.

Several programs initiated during the pandemic continued in 2022, including our Expressions Art & Culture Talks and our Museum Series. In our Expressions series, we spoke with two powerhouses in their respective creative fields: preeminent American calligrapher, Mohammed Zakariya, and acclaimed global fashion designer, Naeem Khan. Our Museum Series also returned, with a playful exploration of childrens’ museums in the U.S. and Qatar. Thanks to the easing of pandemic travel restrictions, QAIC was able to host two cultural enrichment trips to Qatar last year: the first for museum and arts leaders and the second for U.S. artists and creatives. The 16 delegates visited various artistic, historic, and culturally significant sites across Doha. Hands-on educational and culturally immersive experiences represent the heart of QAIC’s mission, encouraging cross-cultural exchange for the promotion of understanding and collaboration.

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“People crave art. People want to know more about culture. They like to experience things through sensory — smell, taste and I think what QAIC is doing here is a great way to do that.”

Mokhtar Alkhanshali,

The Mokha Institute Mokhtar Alkhanshali of The Mokha Institute presenting in QAIC’s ballroom

“Of course, culture bounds us. It is very different in America, and it is very different in Qatar. You have to understand that you take that thread that binds everyone together, and you twist and turn to meet the requirements of what the culture demands.”

Naeem Khan, Fashion mogul

Photo of Haifa AlKhuzai’s artwork on display at the Wilson Center

The culmination of our community engagement throughout the year, our second annual IMPART Summit: Congress for Creatives, brought together 16 artists, filmmakers, academics, community leaders, olfactory art experts, and sustainable fashion brands for a two-day program. The Summit featured the winners of our 2021 IMPART Artist Grant and 2022 Arab Film House Awards, an art party featuring spiritual artist Aida Murad, and panels on sustainability in food and coffee culture, and perfumery.

QAIC’s commitment to connecting communities and being a platform, for both established and young scholars, came to life in three issues of our digital publication, A2Q magazine. The goal of A2Q isn’t to restate what’s going on in our physical space; it acts as an immersive and multi-dimensional element of our programming. A2Q is used to expand on topics or themes in a way that complements our exhibitions and programs.

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A QAIC delegation of museum and arts leaders enjoying lunch overlooking Katara Cultural Village along the Persian Gulf

“With the IMPART Grant, QAIC was able to give me space to research something that was very intensive, that was heavily research-focused, but also required a lot of technical time and energy to be put into it. It is because of QAIC that I was really able to do everything to a professional quality.”

Nia Alexander Campbell, IMPART Artist

Participants of IMPART Summit enjoy an art party with artist Aida Murad

Dozens of authors shared their perspectives on the artistic, cultural, and social landscape of the U.S., Qatar, and the Gulf region. Most excitingly, A2Q was registered at the Library of Congress last summer. The library, which also hosted the Qatar National Day celebration in December, has one of the greatest library collections in the world, and A2Q’s inclusion means the magazine is now accessible to millions of people.

Authors featured in A2Q in 2022 included our three QAIC fellows — based in Washington, D.C. and Doha — who contributed fascinating articles on cultural understanding, the history of Qatar National Day, the evolution of mosque architecture, ConocoPhillips’ Global Water Sustainability Center in Doha, and much more. Fellows also had the opportunity to support the partnership between QAIC and the White House Historical Association on the first ever Arabic-language translation of White House tours, collaborate with the programs team to develop audience engagement surveys, and facilitate a panel at our IMPART Summit.

Our virtual and in-person programs, artist award opportunities, signature publications and cultural enrichment trips are all ways we aim to foster community, facilitate dialogue and support emerging and mid-career artists.

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“I felt comfortable with this organization because it is both Eastern and Western at the same time. That connection between East and West really speaks to me because I am both American and Arab.”

Patricia Daher, IMPART Artist

latest edition of A2Q magazine

Malek Jandali performs at the 2022 IMPART Summit

QAIC’s

fellow profile

alyaa al-maaDeeD, msw washington, D.c.

Alyaa Al-Maadeed is currently a PhD candidate at Howard University’s School of Social Work. Born and raised in Qatar, Al-Maadeed’s passion for learning new languages and exploring different traditions led her to travel to the U.S. where she obtained her master’s in social work from Arizona State University. Her work and research have involved supporting refugees in the U.S. through cultural exchange and community development projects.

“I am pleased to have a platform not just as a middle eastern Muslim woman, but also as a researcher and scholar. The team at QAIC are very collaborative and intrigued to discuss my research interests and formulate a space to adapt its outcomes.”

Alyaa Al Maadeed, QAIC Fellow

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QAIC BY THE NUMBERS

1,704 Visitors

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190 Booked Tours of QAIC Exhibitions 24 Public Programs (in-person and virtual) 6 Exhibitions 30 Artists Exhibited 36 Partnerships

looKing aheaD

As we continue to navigate the post-pandemic world, maintaining our ties to our community, both in the U.S. and Qatar, remains a top priority. In addition to signature publications such as A2Q, we continued the monthly publication of our newsletter, keeping our community up to date on exciting upcoming programs, events and exhibitions. As we look forward to another exciting year at QAIC, we hope you’ll join us for an engaging schedule of programs and new exhibitions exploring the intersection between technology and the arts in 2023, whether that be at our headquarters in Washington or through our online platforms.

We invite you to learn more about QAIC, and the value of membership, on our website at qataramerica.org/become-a-member You can also stay up to date on QAIC’s latest news and updates by following us on social media @qataramerica

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thanK you

QAIC thanks all of our sponsors, donors, partners, board members, volunteers, staff and fellows who have supported us in 2022.

2022 Year in Review Report