This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing Ehab Shanti, co-founder and CEO of Alhoush.com a physical and virtual expo of Arab art and design. Ehab has been referred to by Al-Quds Newspaper as “the dynamite of the artistic movement”. Passionate about art and design and their potential to play a profound role in overcoming life’s challenges, Ehab (and co-founder Rashid Abdelhamid) created Alhoush.com to empower the art and design community in the Arab world; to serve as a catalyst for creating an economy; and also to shed light on the innovation and tremendous achievements of Arab artists. A Canadian of Arab origin, Ehab is a communications expert with over 15 years of experience. He was the head of communications for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Jerusalem and he says it was then that he saw “firsthand the power of art”. He helped to set up the UNDP Annual Art Auction and has gone on to organise numerous successful artistic and cultural events that have attracted international attention including This Is Also Gaza, featuring 40 Gazan painters, photographers, filmmakers and video artists; two shows called Colours of the Future, held in Amman and in Abu Dhabi, for Jordanian and Emirati artists respectively; and This Is Palestine, an ambitious project with 200 relatively unknown artists, emphasising cultural development and the power of art to transcend reality and create beauty even in situations of conflict and distress. Ehab completed most of his education in Canada and holds a Masters of Public Administration from Dalhousie University and several BA’s from Carleton University in Art History, Political Science, and Interdisciplinary Studies. He has extensive experience in communications and campaign organization and is the President and Founder of Amandla Group, which is a strategic communications consulting firm based in Amman and covering the Middle East and North Africa region. Ehab states “The role of art…is to create a different reality and that can change things and that is the philosophy behind what we are doing.”
Tune in Saturday 9-10 PM to find out more about the life and art of Ehab Shanti. For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
