Arts award can boost UAE relations with US

Badr Jafar, chief executive of Crescent Enterprises, will be awarded a 2014 Kennedy Centre International Committee on the Arts Gold Medal in the Arts for his work with American music producer Quincy Jones.

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SHARJAH // An Arab social entrepreneur hopes an honour from the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts will draw attention to the power of “cultural diplomacy” to build closer ties with the United States.

“This could be a bridge between our region and the rest of the world,” said Badr Jafar, chief executive of Crescent Enterprises based in Sharjah.

“Art and culture offer the best representation of a people, and are a healthy approach to generating cross-border dialogue.”

Mr Jafar and American music producer Quincy Jones are to be awarded the 2014 Kennedy Centre International Committee on the Arts Gold Medal in the Arts tomorrow in Dubai.

The musicians collaborated in 2011 to launch the Global Gumbo Group to develop new multimedia opportunities for artists in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Kennedy Centre committee lauded their “extraordinary accomplishments and their long-lasting benefit for the international performing arts community”.

Mr Jafar said Arabs “haven’t paid enough attention to the arts” in educational institutions. “We need to start catching up on that front – embracing culture and arts as life tools, not just entertainment, and as a means to generate economic value. We need to develop sustainable business models to generate a sustainable cultural economy. The Global Gumbo Group I created in partnership with Quincy Jones is an east-west collaboration doing just that.”

Last year the group staged Dubai Music Week, the Middle East’s first music industry convention, attracting more than 35,000 attendees.

Sharjah, where Mr Jafar is from, is the third largest UAE member.

Mr Jafar said recognition from the Kennedy Centre “gets us in touch with the US arts scene and adds international credibility to our efforts”.

Established in 2001, the Kennedy Centre International Committee on the Arts supports the global arts community by convening in a new international location each year. This year’s Dubai summit runs until Thursday.

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