The National Meuseum

Check out the website of the National museum here.

I mean, the last event on their website was in 2003!!!

I am so ashamed of this. This is just a disgrace to the Lebanese government(s), the Lebanese historical whatevers, and to all Lebanese people anywhere on the planet, that their national meuseum, does not have a descent website that reflects the historical image of Lebanon.

Such a shame, I do not know where to start!

The basic set of problems

In my opinion, there isn't enough activity in the art field in Lebanon. The domain is more or less stagnant. There are a set of galleries, of which only a fraction has a presence on the web, and the others, who do, do not have a properly designed website for the dissemination of information. That is on one hand. On the other, none of the art galleries promote artistic opportunities. No call for papers, no call for exhibition proposals, no art competitions, no call for artists, no publicity for rare art workshops, no interaction amongst the galleries.

I would be harshly judging the art galleries in Lebanon, but on the other hands, there is only less than a handful of art museums, of which less than that have any presence on the web, or any information disseminated to the public. Not to speak of all the universities in Lebanon, who have an art program, and yet, no permanent exhibition space for emerging artists, and if they had, their existence is as good as if they did not exist, since no one knows about them anyway.

There are only a few handful websites on Lebanese art and artists, of which ashkal alwan would probably rank among the best. Still, their monthly newsletter, that provides vital information about the art scene in Lebanon, is not properly parsed, and it is provided on their website in pdf format, which renders it useless for any web application and spread of information. The rest of the information on their website has not been updated for a while.

So, how can we rectify all these problems?

For God's sake, start a blog all of you out there. if you need any help with that, just let me know.

Lebanon Art and Art in Lebanon

I am starting this blog with a sense of frustration. It appears that the Lebanese people have no artistic interests whatsoever.

They seem to be more interested in politics than they are in culture. In my belief, this is a huge part our cultural struggle. There seems to be literally thousands of people with political blogs and discussion boards, and an extremely minimal amount on the artistic scenes.

This blog is an attempt to raise interest in what is fundamentally human.