Dubai Culture & Arts Authority strengthens Emirate’s literary scene

The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for culture, heritage and the arts, recently held a dinner event, in collaboration with the Middle East’s largest annual literary festival, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (Emirates Lit Fest), bringing together authors and potential patrons to drive forward the growth of Literature.

The event was the first in a series of strategic initiatives by Dubai Culture to further strengthen the cultural scene of the Emirate by promoting stronger art and cultural patronage by providing platforms for patrons and talent to interact.

The first dinner-event hosted Kate Adie, former BBC journalist and award winning reporter, and Khalid Khamissi, an internationally acclaimed Egyptian writer, and a number of art patrons, who are the pillars of support for the development of the cultural and artistic scene of Dubai.

Several of the patrons in attendance were honoured earlier this year for their generous support with the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patron of the Arts Awards.

The inaugural Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards recognised patrons for their valuable contributions of almost AED 250 million from 2007 to 2009 towards visual arts, film, performing arts, and literature. In this, visual arts recorded the highest percentage with 61.5 percent support, filmmaking accounted for 27.5 percent, performance arts received 9 and literature received 2 percent.

Saeed Al Nabouda, Acting-Director General of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority said that Dubai Culture’s collaboration with EAFL is part of the Authority’s strategy to underscore the need to support and steer the literary sector and promote local talent.

“Dubai took a very important step to appreciate patrons who support the Dubai cultural scene, with the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patron of the Arts Awards. The special dinner event was the next step forward aimed at serving as a bridge between literary talent and potential patrons to encourage patronage for Literature.”