Understanding Arab Art: A Collector’s Perspective
Date:
2018
About:

A short documentary film that explores Arab art featuring an interview with Sultan Al Qassemi, a prominent art collector based in Sharjah, UAE.

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi (Arabic: سلطان سعود القاسمي‎) is an Emirati commentator on Arab affairs and also a member of the Sharjah ruling family. Al-Qassemi is known for his use of Twitter and has been described by numerous media outlets as a prominent voice during the events of the Arab Spring. In February 2014 Al-Qassemi joined the Global Commission on Internet Governance and in the summer of 2014 became an MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow. In the Spring 2017 Al-Qassemi was a practitioner in residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Near East Studies at New York University, where he offered a course on Politics of Middle Eastern Art. The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut's Global Influence list of Arabic thought leaders ranked Al-Qassemi number 19 in 2018. Also in 2018 he was named a World Fellow in the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program. Al-Qassemi is also the Chairman of Barjeel Geojit Securities, a joint-venture that was formed with Geojit Financial Services of India.

Al-Qassemi is the founder of the Sharjah-based Barjeel Art Foundation whose mission is to promote art by artists from the Arab world through exhibitions locally and internationally. Al-Qassemi was on the panel of judges on Sheikha Manal's Young Artist Award in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Al-Qassemi was also part of the Jury and Selection Committee of The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award 2017.

Barjeel Geojit was formed as a joint venture between Al-Qassemi and Geojit Financial Services of India in the year 2000. The company is an eight time consecutive winner of Best Performing Financial Advisor in NRI Category at the CNBC-TV18 Financial Advisor Awards. Al-Qassemi was also featured in the World Economic Forum's list of Young Global Leaders in 2011 as the Chairman of Barjeel Geojit Securities.