Professional calligraphers get a new platform

 Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

The Khawla Art & Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi, has launched an initiative that aims to build a reference database of all distinguished, licensed calligraphers worldwide. The initiative was named ‘The Certified Calligraphers Pedigree’.

Highlighting the elite calligraphers on the global arena, the Calligraphers Tree will branch out into various calligraphy arts, enlisting profiles of prominent calligraphers with their major works and who were the masters and students of each of them, resulting in an elaborate tree of references and lineages.

The first of its kind, this initiative came to use Khawla’s foundation website as a platform to launch the world’s calligraphy lineage tree, with the option to search by country and a gallery for each artist, making the Tree a reference and a documented record for the progress of the art of Arabic calligraphy as seen through its major champions of licensed calligraphers. 

 The initiative has started with adequate data on nineteen artists from eight countries: USA, Kuwait, Spain, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.

However, the Tree is set to grow larger shortly, following its technical criteria and objectives of developing a knowledge and communication network for all calligraphy professionals and lovers of Arabic calligraphy and related arts. 

Commenting on the launching of this initiative, Sheikha Khawla Bint Ahmed Bin Khalifa Al Suwaidi said, “The launching of this initiative came to meet an urgent need to demonstrate interest in Arabic calligraphy,” stressing that “this art is a precious treasure that has been greatly marginalised.”

She added that she aspires to “highlight the significance of this form of art and introduce its techniques and masters to the public, so as to revive this time-honored art. One of the key objectives of this initiative is to introduce this art to the new generations and to help, motivate, inspire and support young talents in this field.”

Herself a calligrapher, poet and pioneer in the field of culture and art in the UAE and beyond, Sheikha Khawla has sponsored and adopted various initiatives and projects in arts and culture including Khawla Art & Cultural Foundation, Khawla Cultural Majlis, in addition to numerous art exhibitions where she showcased her works that represent a mixture of art, literature, poetry and Arabic calligraphy, especially using the Jaly script.