The Society of Architectural Heritage Protection Jeddah with the cooperation of Saudi artists Mohammed Ghabra and Tagreed Wazna organized a six-day workshop for artists that started on Saturday at Naseef House in Jeddah’s historical district of Balad.
“The main aim behind this workshop is to encourage the artists of Saudi Arabia to participate in artistic work. During the workshop, they will make a painting on Jeddah’s heritage. Artists can tell stories through their paintings and drawings, and they don’t need any particular language to explain them. They are the best promoters of the country’s heritage, culture and traditions, as art is an international language to communicate in,” said Ghabra.
He said a number of Saudi artists were participating in the workshop, which is open to anyone wishing to learn different techniques of making paintings and drawings.
Wazna said this is the first workshop at Naseef House, which they organized with the aim of teaching artists about the Balad district and its old buildings and heritage of Jeddah and putting them on canvas to promote and protect them.
She said the next step of the workshop would be to exhibit the paintings at the museum of the Society of Architectural Heritage Protection. In January 2013, the society with the cooperation of Jeddah municipality will organize an exhibition for the public.
“Our expectations for this exhibition are high. We think it will be a great hit, and artists and people will like the artists’ work. At the same time, we will be able to promote our heritage and traditional buildings and explain the importance of this heritage to the public,” said Wazna.
Waleed Abdulaziz, spokesman for the Society of Architectural Heritage Jeddah, said they had organized the artists’ workshop with the aim of giving maximum protection to Jeddah’s heritage and history, as this is their organization’s main
task.
“We have wanted to organize such an event with artists and Jeddah municipality for a long time. Now we got the chance to organize this event to promote and protect our heritage and history,” he said. “The other goal of this workshop is the development and encouragement of young artists while simultaneously raise their awareness about our heritage and its protection and promotion,” he said.
Talal Samarkandi, founder of the society, said this artistic workshop was one of the activities they organized to convey the importance of heritage to the public.
“One of the goals of this workshop is to reintroduce Jeddah’s center and heritage to the public and upgrade their knowledge about the importance of keeping the old buildings. Artists are like ambassadors, as they always help in promoting the country’s culture, tradition and heritage,” he added.
