Sharjah Art Foundation will wait to appoint new director

SHARJAH // The Sharjah Art Foundation has no immediate plans to fill the post of director that was left vacant by the dismissal of Jack Persekian in April, at the start of the biennial art fair.

Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, the founder and president of the organisation, is filling the role before a restructuring.

Sheikha Hoor is also the curator of Drift, an exhibition of landscapes that will form part of the foundation's winter programme.

"The foundation is not currently looking to fill the position of director," said Judith Greer, its associate director. "At the moment Sheikha Hoor is president and acting director of the foundation.

"We have numerous plans but we have a very full staff capable of producing the exhibitions and events we have planned for the next two years. We will soon be making an announcement of the curator for Sharjah Biennial 2013."

Mr Persekian was dismissed after a row over one of the exhibits at this year's biennial. The restructuring was planned before he left.

Sheikha Hoor, daughter of Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed, Ruler of Sharjah, said the foundation was planning to better engage the public and intended to lend more works from its collection to institutions abroad.

"We have always had a lot of educational programmes and small events that we were trying to focus on in the run-up to the biennial and afterwards," she said.

"But there was a lack of engagement with the community and preparation time, because the biennial always took up so much of our time.

"So we're trying to plan ahead, and with being organised and planning ahead you're able to use some of the works that we've purchased for our collection from the biennial, or commissioned, and work with other institutions to have an exchange.

"We need to figure out what are we trying to say, and what is Sharjah Art Foundation? Our main goals are working with artists, commissioning works and supporting artists, so we need to have an ongoing programme where we can do that."

Plans for reaching out to the public include workshops at the Sharjah International Book Fair, which begins today, and a new music education programme.

The winter schedule will peak with the annual March Meeting, a gathering of leading art figures from around the world.

Other highlights include: displays of works from previous biennials; a piece called This Situation, in which six people interact in line with rules set out by the artist Tino Sehgal; and the Middle East premiere of Tarek Atoui's Visiting Tarab, a modern interpretation of classical Arab music.

csimpson@thenational.ae