Lebanon based creative wins inaugural visual arts award

Shereen received the accolade at an awards ceremony hosted by Iniva. The prize was presented by Andrea Rose, British Council Director of Visual Arts, on Tuesday 14 October, 2008. Shereen was given a financial prize of £7,500 to be spent on a collaborative visual arts project with the UK’s international cultural relations body, the British Council.

Shereen is the Local Director of Lens On Lebanon, an arts collective founded in 2006 during the Lebanon/Israel war.  Her work reveals a deep interest in the power of the visual arts in promoting the spiritual, social, and economic strength of communities, particularly those who have traditionally occupied a marginal position in the arts and media. She promotes their cultural enfranchisement, develops local community arts networks, establishes collaborations with NGOs, coordinates workshops, exhibitions and screenings, and manages the local account.

Andrea also announced a special commendation from the jury for Himanshu Verma from India.  Himanshu is the director of Red Earth, a New Delhi based organisation that engages with visual and performing arts, presenting exhibitions, visual art projects, and art festivals.

Shereen was chosen from a shortlist of candidates that widely represent the visual arts scene including the public sector, commercial galleries and organisations presenting visual arts works such as auction houses, dealers, publishers and communications agencies or websites joined in their shared passion for the advocacy of the visual arts within their country.

The inaugural year of the International Young Visual Arts Entrepreneur award saw eight finalists from Colombia, India, Lebanon, Poland, Syria, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela participate in a two week tour of the London, Newcastle/Gateshead and Liverpool visual arts scenes.

The programme, designed to give the finalists a shared overview of the best of the UK visual arts scene included meeting key people from the UK business, on a group and individual basis, making contacts and building an understanding of the UK industry, the group will also attend the Liverpool Biennial, Frieze and Zoo Art Fairs.

The British Council’s Creative Economy Expert, Andrew Senior, said: `This year’s inaugural award has been presented to a winner who truly represents the ethos of this new prize. There is a wealth of talent in the field of visual arts and this award is special in that it recognises the skills of entrepreneurship whilst seeking to further stimulate the development of the industry in an international business context and in this instance as part of a more specific project to affect wider social change in Lebanon through art. 

The judges for this year’s award were Jackie Haliday, Co-director Gimpel Fils; Sarah Macanee, Acting Head of Programmes, Iniva; Paul Moss, Director, Workplace Gallery; and Andrea Rose, Director Visual Arts at the British Council.

For further information, images or to speak to any of the entrepreneurs, please contact Eleanor Hutchins, British Council Press Office on 020 7389 4981/07810 383 049 or email eleanor.hutchins@britishcouncil.org

Notes to Editors:

The British Council works in 110 countries and territories worldwide to build intercultural understanding between the UK and other countries through the arts, education and training, science and technology, sport, and good governance. Our income in 2006/07 was £551m, of which grant-in-aid from the British government was £195m. For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org

For more information about the British Council’s Creative Economy programme, please visit: www.creativeconomy.org.uk