Egyptian art collector to build bridges between the Arab world and the West The Shafik Gabr Foundation announces the launch of “East-West: The Art of Dialogue”, a new charitable initiative to encourage and stimulate dialogue between the Arab world and the West. The launch of the initiative on November 15 will be endorsed by Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister and the Quartet's special representative to the Middle East. The initiative, inspired by founder Shafik Gabr's passion for the European and American artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries who travelled to the Middle East and immersed themselves in the local culture and way of life, will sponsor exchanges between young emerging leaders in the arts, sciences, law, media and both business and social entrepreneurship from the Arab world and the West. By enabling them to observe and share in each others' cultures and societies at close quarters, to create new networks and to communicate their experiences more widely, the Foundation aims to help reverse the erosion of public understanding and trust, to recover the profound commonalities and to value the enriching differences between East and West. The launch coincides with the publication of a new book “Masterpieces of Orientalist Art: The Shafik Gabr Collection.” Around 26 masterpieces from this collection will be on display at the Dorchester. Twenty will be tasked with developing creative projects which will bridge social and cultural divides and reach out beyond their home communities to a wider public. These projects will be presented at a conference in Washington, DC in November 2013 which they themselves will help shape and organise. – SG
