Sisters Grimm, a Dubai production company founded by ballerina Pietra De Mello-Pittman and Grammy-nominated singer Ella Spira, have released a new song and music video featuring artworks by children across the UAE.
It launched online on Wednesday, marking World Wildlife Day.
The duo recently released their "Covid-conscious" digital initiative UAE Art in Nature, giving young people aged 5 to 18 the chance to get involved with Sisters Grimm's work, and to channel their creativity while engaging with nature. It was supported by Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
The self-funded project received more than 1,000 artistic submissions from more than 100 schools across the UAE, and these have been turned into 3D imagery used in the video for new single Windows of the Mind, which features the vocals of Madyan Hamza, who sings in Arabic, and DB Gad in English.
“We wanted to provide children with the opportunity to learn outside their usual environment and enjoy the many benefits of nature for well-being and to inspire artistic, creative expression and family connection,” said Sisters Grimm, in a statement.
Every child who sent in a submission has had their artwork displayed in the online UAE Art in Nature Gallery and will receive a signed certificate of participation.
The work will tour the Emirates and later be made available internationally, as part of a Sisters Grimm-curated art installation, in which all of the pieces will be set alongside Spira's paintings of natural landscapes across the UAE.
"We conceived this project to create an opportunity for everyone to consciously connect with nature and to encourage environmental awareness so we can all start to take the necessary steps to reaching net zero emissions.
“It’s the start of everyone individually making lifestyle choices from a place of appreciating and understanding the power of nature, and how important it is we all protect our natural world.”
Sisters Grimm have released numerous songs and music videos since the start of the pandemic, amassing more than 5.3 million views on their YouTube channel.
This includes United, a song written for UAE National Day by Spira and DB Gad, featuring the vocals of Emirati singer Shamma Hamdan, Don Abdullah and Madyan Hamza. Its video has more than three million views on YouTube.
It was inspired by the travels of De Mello-Pittman and Spira across the seven emirates. "The idea behind the song United was us wanting to share these wonders of the UAE that we've been lucky enough to experience and believe it gives a different level of understanding of where this region has come from," the duo wrote in the description on YouTube.
“It has been special and unexpected to discover the history, culture and natural beauty of the region, which is perhaps less known.”
De Mello-Pittman and Spira founded Sisters Grimm in 2009 in London, before establishing their first international office in the UAE in 2020. They set up a home writing and recording studio to complete production on a new show, Daughters of the Wind, which they say will showcase the best of the UAE and celebrate Arab culture.
In 2020, the pair were also made MBEs (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for their services to international trade and to the creative industries.
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Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
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Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
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Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
F1 line ups in 2018
Mercedes-GP Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez; Renault Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr; Williams Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa / Robert Kubica / Paul di Resta; McLaren Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Toro Rosso TBA; Haas F1 Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber TBA
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Tips for SMEs to cope
- Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
- Make sure you have an online presence
- Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
- Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
