The love for and interest in art, culture and education is unavoidably visible in Qatar. The art landscape of Doha encourages local and international artists and art collectors to exhibit their creative pieces here.
Art is a human expression and social welfare is a human need. There are examples where artists work and support for different social causes all around the world. The concept is not alien to Qatar. Pallas Arts Qatar has joined hands with Margarita Barrientos Foundation to support the children in need in Argentina.
The Embassy of Argentina in Qatar has also collaborated with Pallas Arts for the project ‘Education and Arts’ that will support Margarita Barrientos Foundation in efforts to take care of children in need.
“What the embassy is doing is to support the important work of Pallas Arts with Margarita Barrientos Foundation. KatArt is a very important art exhibition [going on in Katara]. It has two faces. One side, we have art and on other side we have social commitment.  The commitment is for the education of kids in need.
“The foundation has been taking care of lots of children in Argentina related to food, health, education and culture. In the case of Pallas Arts, I am thankful and have deep appreciation for their work. They are going to support in an educational project and a cultural centre as well,” said Dr Carlos Hernandez, Ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, while talking to Community at the embassy.
The ongoing KatArt Preview exhibition is a curtain-raiser for Katara Global Art Fair (KatArt) that will take place in Doha for the first time in October this year. It is going to be a contemporary art fair, which aims to introduce collective and solo projects from leading and emerging local and international artists. Its concept was developed in 2019 by PallasArts in partnership with the Katara Cultural Village, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. It will offer an ideal platform of interaction between collectors, artists, photographers, designers and other art professionals. The art fair will feature live performances in addition to the exposition of numerous paintings, sculptures, photographs, among many other art pieces.
Ambassador Carlos further said: “The embassy tries to put people together. We will give them all the support they need. In a way of course we are one team but Pallas Arts are the important people.”
Mariame Farqane, CEO of Pallas Arts, said: “I want to stress that it [the project] is not a charity or help. It is a very high social commitment that we have with this foundation or with any other organisation that will work with in future. It is important for us because earlier Pallas Arts was Bab’El Institute. The foundation of all these institutions is invention of a new education system. In pursuit of this system, we have decided to build the cultural centre. It is focused on orphans and also on other kids in need. We do not talk about charity here. It is a social commitment.”
She added: “We actually started communicating with Margarita Barrientos Foundation after getting details about the foundation from the ambassador of Argentina here. We asked the support of the ambassador in identifying what institutions in Argentina are in need of our support. We are in the process of finalising our visits to the site in Argentina. We have decided to support the construction of the cultural centre because it is close to the concept of Bab’El Institute. The cultural centre is already under construction in Buenos Aires. We are planning to complete the construction work and run the centre in accordance with our education system. We will jointly name the cultural centre after Bab’El Institute and Margarita Barrientos Foundation.”
Explaining the collaboration further, Mariame said: “The upcoming art fair is not meant for the collaboration with the foundation. In fact, Pallas Arts as a company is set to support and fund the cultural centre in Argentina. For example, the idea is that 60 percent of master pieces will be used to fund the construction of the cultural centre.”
Appreciating the kind of support art gets in Qatar, Mariame said that there are many projects here that are run for kids’ education all around the world. “We as the company try to support the vision of Qatar. We want to complement what the country has already been doing.”


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