Wintec Art Exhibited In Saudi Arabia

Wintec Art Exhibited In Saudi Arabia

Art by Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology) students in the Bachelor of Media Arts programme was displayed at a recent New Zealand – Saudi Arabia art exhibition at the New Zealand Embassy in Riyadh.

This was the first time art by Saudi and New Zealand artists has been exhibited together in Saudi Arabia.

The exhibition was also unusual in that a woman Saudi artist, Badria Al Wahaibi exhibited her work. “It was unique for a woman artist to exhibit her work in Saudi Arabia, where the arts have to conform to very strict religious requirements,” said Education Attaché at the New Zealand Embassy in Riyadh, Tony Davies.

Wintec’s participation in the exhibition was organised by Wintec School of Media Arts tutor, Mark Curtis.

“Exhibiting the students’ work has helped promote the kinds of creative courses available in New Zealand to prospective students as well as showing the quality of work that students need to achieve in order to succeed in the course,” said Mr Davies.

The exhibition also featured paintings by New Zealand artist Simon Jay and art work from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade collection. The exhibition was visited by a large number of diplomatic staff from other embassies, the New Zealand ex-pat community as well as extensive interest from the Saudi community.

“The exhibition was a great opportunity to bring New Zealand culture to the Gulf States and art is a way to help bridge the cultural divide between two very different cultures,” said Mr Davies.

Wintec Student Art Work on Display at the Recent NZ-Saudi Art Exhibition

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