The Elham Arts Festival this year will offer much more to young talented people than in previous years. Through a variety of events, activities and workshops, young artists of every background can join established artists in producing work and creating exciting art.

Music and performative arts are the main focus with many of the events featuring local musicians, bands and performance acts. Throughout the festival, artists will be producing paintings on the wall and graffiti art accompanied by live music performed by young and upcoming talents. One of our main international guests to appear at this year’s Elham Arts Festival is Saudi musical poetry sensation May Kutbi who combines her strong writing skills with a sense for a fused musical experience. Her poetry/music is captured in her latest offering, a CD entitled “Ashiqat”.

Musicians featured this year include Ala Ghawas, The Tryout, Silverlake, Faceless Man, Hasan Hujairi, Ali Malik and many more. Artists showcasing their work also include Moosa Silwadi, Yasmine Rasool, and young photographer Hasan Alkhunaizi.

The festival will introduce for the first time the concept of “spoken word” art form, a free-flowing linguistic expression combining creative writing, poetry and even rapping. Hip-hop artists Hotline and DBoy will take part.

Another event that will be introduced for the first time during this event will be the Megamix histories 303, which will be an interactive workshop to create multi-media narrative using video, music, dance and other art mediums. And will be instructed by American Artist Steven Mykietyn, who returns to Bahrain After participating in last years festival.

And just like last year, Elham will be ending the festival with a musical concert which will be held in the cultural hall on the 20^th, the concert is a follow up to last years successful “Museland” concert, and will be entitled “Museland V2” . it will feature the likes of young alternative rock band Silverlake and experimental folk singer Alaa Ghawas and others.

Elham’s art festival is aiming to provide a platform for all young Bahraini artists to showcase their talents in front of a live audience and established artists in the country, and all those who are artists or have an interest in different forms of arts are invited to come and experience this unique festival.

“This is going to be an exciting event where everyone who has an interest in art or creativity can come and join in,” said festival organizer and Elham founder Ali Al Saeed, “We want to create a vibrant atmosphere and provide a place for young people to show their skills, engage with art and just interact with each other,”

Workshops open to the public, on creative writing, music, and performative arts will also be held throughout the festival’s 15 days period,

The Elham Arts Festival will be held from May 5 to the 20th with the majority of events being hosted at Qal’at Albahrain Site Museum. Full details will be announced soon and you can view the website www.elhambahrain.net for updates. You can also find us on Facebook.

If you wish to participate in any of the workshops or receive more information about the events you can email elhambahrain@yahoo.com or call 39595454

About:

Elham: Elham is an art group that was establishied in 2006 with the aim to provide a monthly forum for artistically minded people, and gives both expats and Bahraini artists traversing the creative spectrum a platform to showcase their work, in addition to monthly sessions at gallaries, museums and cafes.

The Elham Arts Festival: now in its third edition, the Elham Arts Festival was introduced by Elham with the purpose of providing an interactive cultural environment that enriches people’s lives and give them a unique experience, last year’s festival had the slogan “Art to the people” and it was a true celebration of all sorts of Art, it was attended by hundreds of Art enthusiasts.

The Elham Arts Festival is three weeks away. The 15-day long alternative arts festival will bring together some of the hottest talents on the island to share their art and music with you. And why not join in? Performances, workshops and live art sessions will be open to everyone to take part, join the artists and show off their own skills.

Here are some of the highlights to look out for:

Fallen Into Harmony: May 5 to 20 @ The Art Center – “Art exhibition featuring the amazing works of Moosa Silwadi, Yasmine Rasool, Sarah Aradi and many others!”

Spoken-Notion May 6 @ Bahrain Fort Museum – “First of it’s kind spoken word event, where poetry, rap and verse combine to create a unique verbal and musical experience. Featuring hip-hop artist Hotline”

Live Art Sessions May 6, 7 & 8 @ Bahrain Fort Museum – “Evenings full of live music, art performances and live painting. Watch art being made in front of your eyes, and be part of the creation!”

May Kutbi May 7 @ Bahrain Fort Museum – “Don’t miss out the Bahrain debut of this phenomenal Saudi poet/singer performing some of her songs and launching her Ashiqat CD”

SonicInk May 14 @ Bahrain Fort Museum – “An interactive sound workshop in which everyone is invited to create music, led by Bahraini musician Hasan Hujairi”

MuseLand V2 May 20 @ The Cultural Hall – “A live music concert featuring a group of local bands playing rock, blues, folk and alterntaive music. Headlined by the one and only Bahraini musical sensation Ala Ghawas.”

Full programme will be posted in the next few days. For any queries contact us on elhambahrain@yahoo.com

MANAMA: Bahraini national best-selling author Ali Al Saeed is presenting the first of a new series of workshops on creative writing this month (March) for budding writers on the island. The workshop will be held over four sessions, every Saturday, starting March 20.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about the skills, techniques and styles of writing fiction, focusing on short stories and novels, and be encouraged to produce new writing or complete a work in progress during the workshop. They will also get an insight into the process of writing and its essential components such as plot, character, pace and tone. Al Saeed will also give tips to budding writers on the current trends in the publishing industries and the various ways of getting published.

“My approach to writing is not academic. So the workshop won’t be linear, but instead will build on the idea of honing your imagination as a skill and get you to lose your inhibitions as a writer,” explained the award-winning writer, “It should be fun, after all.”

Al Saeed is the award-winning author of three critically-acclaimed books, QuixotiQ, Moments and Sad Man Dancing. The workshop is being held in conjunction with the launch of his latest book, a creative non-fiction book titled, The Randomist. He has also conducted talks and workshops in Bahrain and abroad. His work has been published internationally in various literary journals, magazines and anthologies.

The workshop is one of several events building up to Elham’s upcoming major event, the third edition of its annual alternative arts festival held between May 5^th to 15^th. The Elham Arts Festival 2010 will feature a wide range of performative and visual arts, live music, film screenings, art exhibitions, talks and a number of workshops conducted by local and international artists.

“All our workshops, including this one, will focus on producing work, collaboration and interaction. They will be a unique experience for the participants,” said Elham event manager Sarah Sulaiman, “Participants in this workshop will also have the opportunity to take part in the festival and read their work to the public.”

The sessions for the creative writing workshop by Al Saeed will be held on Saturdays from 10.30am to 12.30pm at a venue yet to be confirmed. Registration fee is BD40 and is open until March 15. Seats are limited. To register send an email to elhambahrain@yahoo.com or contact 39416121.

Elham’s second event of the new season will see it return to a favorite spot, Albareh Art Gallery in Adliya. ELHAM20 will be held on October 27th and bring together another group of artists that will engage you with their art and talent.

Bahraini 24-year-old Sarah Al Aradi, holder of a Bachelor’s degree in arts and humanities, launched herself into the local art scene earlier this year and has been making waves since. As a lover of Classical Realism Art, Sarah has been developing her own style, influenced by the likes of J.W Waterhouse, William Bouguereau, Frederic Lord Leighton, John White, Rossetti.

Shabana Feroze will be sketching faces from the crowd throughout the evening with her own unique style and show off some of her oli paintings while one-man-band The J.A.M. Project will perform for the first time in Bahrain. Started as a side project in December 2008 by Anthony Muthurajah, the band has been busy working on its first recorded, an independent E.P featuring music infusing Metal, Acoustic, Funky and Alternative rock.

Also debuting at Elham in October is journalist, poet and award-winning playwright Mahdi Salman who will recite some of his Arabic poetry. Mahdi participated in numerous poetry and theater festivals locally and regionally and has had his works published in a variety of print and electronic publications. Mahdi has also had two books of poetry published in Arabic.

The event will be held from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Entrance is free and all are welcome.

PRESS RELASE

A Bahrain-myth inspired story will “touch” the art community all the way down under, in Australia, during a special art festival. Award-winning author Ali Al Saeed will be taking part in the Arc 2009 Biennial of Art in Brisbane between September 4^th to 27^th.

An art installation based on the short story written by Al Saeed will be created by the author in collaboration with Irish artist Keith Winter. The installation will expand on the concept of the story, which was published in a 6-part series in the monthly FACT magazine, illustrated by Bahraini digital artists Fawaz AlOlaiwat.

The “Red Hand” tells the story of a mysterious supernatural phenomena that spreads in an primary school for boys in the mid 80s and leaves a trail of troubled victims behind.

“It was something that I remember from my school days as a youngster and as with things like that, they tend to stay in your mind as a kid,” explains the author, “In the story, I wanted to discover the mystery and delve into my own interpretation with it, while attempting to delver an important message,”

The art installation in Brisbane will be an interactive piece that will pull people to be involved with it, painting their hands in red, splattering their hand prints on the walls, and even writing their own “Red Hand” story.

“Keith and I developed an interesting concept that will see the story expand to reach further grounds. I’ve always felt that the idea behind the story had the potential to become phenomena. I hope we will be able to achieve that in Brisbane and then take it across the world!”

Artist Winter has also introduced an element from his own culture, The Red Hand of Ulster, to the piece and draw comparisons between the two myths.

Al Saeed will also be involved in readings and talks during his trip to Brisbane, which is sponsored by House of Travel, and will be attending the Brisbane Writers Festival (from September 9 to 13) and the opening of the Brisbane Festival, one of Australia’s leading international arts festivals, on September 12.

Elham is working with several organisations, art galleries and similar art groups. These are people who have supported us and collaborated with us, and continue to do so.

We create with…

Delaweb (Irelane)
Cuboid (USA/Ireland)

Metasenta (Australia)

Albareh Art Gallery (Bahrain)

Alriwaq Art Gallery (Bahrain)

Qal’at Albahrain Museum (Bahrain)

Elham is gone on it’s annual summer hiatus.

Thanks for everyone’s support in our 3rd season, which was another huge success.

We will now begin planning our 4th season, set to kick-off in mid-September with a full line up of great events and projects including a few new surprises!

We are always looking out for new talent. Email us if you are interested in taking part in one of our future events or if you are willing to lend a helping hand.