End of May Events - Offscreen Education

Needless to say, I haven't been a very good blogger lately. To those of you who have been checking this site regularly and not seeing anything exciting for what seems like ages, a huge SORRY! I won't let it happen again (especially after such a public admission)!

On a positive note, the end of May saw our work at the Offscreen Education program go through the roof! In 2002, a friendship was struck between my friend (and Offscreen founder) Stephen Stapleton and Ahmed Mater, a doctor and painter (!) from the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. Back then, visiting the UK was a far-off dream for Ahmed, something that he and Stephen merely joked about...

Fast forward 4 years to see Ahmed leaving Saudi Arabia for the first time and arriving in London for his world debut: His painting "X-Ray #3" hanging at the British Museum in the highly acclaimed Word into Art exhibit on contemporary Middle Eastern art. In fact, at a young 26, he may be the youngest living painter to have his work purchased by the museum!

Coinciding with this fantastic achievement (made possible by Stephen's hard work and perseverance over the past couple of years), the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London held a special art exhibition on May 25 showing more of Ahmed's "medically-influenced" paintings and aerial photographs of his home region Asir. To ensure it all went off without a hitch, our team met with Embassy officials on several occasions before the big night and were even invited to an official meeting with the Ambassador, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, himself (pictures to come)!

In other Offscreen-related news, we now have official offices in the heart of London's business district instead of a corner of Stephen's loft in Dalston-Kingsland! In New York terms, that would be like moving from a studio in the South Bronx to an office on the corner of Park Avenue and 53rd Street. Boy, are we moving up in the world! As can be imagined, we've been busy trying to get the office up and running as quickly as possible.

In fact, in 2 hours we are having our first official meeting at the office (YAY!) to discuss the final touches on the new Offscreen website! I'll post the URL as soon as we launch it, which should be in the next few weeks.

So, that's a teaser of what has been happening in these parts. Stay tuned for more London news... I promise there will be much to share!