Letter From Beirut.

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Art Monthly. Issue No 360. October 2012. Letter From Beirut.

This article is in response to the letter from Cairo. It points out the dedication, commitment and also make me feel the difficulties the artists involved in the Cairo art scene may have. Artists in Cairo are mostly self funded, or fundraise their own salaries or are willing to volunteer there time. 

The letter goes on to talk about the Beirut art scene as a “utopian creative bubble”.   Beirut has been redeveloped into a modern city centre boasting designer clothes shops, restaurants and cafes. Beirut’s nightlife brings status as “unofficial gay capital of middle east and north Africa”. and now has a vibrant and busy art scene which attracts artists and curators from around the area as well as the wider region because of its new social liberalism.  Beirut also has an “institutional infrastructure” as well as the BAC (Beirut Art Centre) and the BEC (Beirut Exhibition Centre). The BAC is funded by sponsors and has a board of trustees, though the board has a lot more control than boards of trustees in the west.