Art attack

Sandra Dagher believes people care about art. As director of the Beirut Art Center she tries to walk the walk by bringing art to the masses whilst supporting local talent.

Once upon a time there was Espace SD…

Yep, well first I studied photography in Paris; I left Lebanon when I was an infant, and I used to come here once a year or so. Then I studied visual communications in London and eventually came back to Beirut for Espace SD.

This was about eight years ago?

I came back in 2000. I felt the need to learn more about and explore my country. Espace SD was already open and managed by my cousin, but they didn’t have an all-year-round program, it was more of a space that artists used every so often. They had other jobs and couldn’t dedicate their time to it, so they proposed that I run the show; and I did, from 2000 to 2007.

And now you’ve moved up to Beirut Art Center, but what’s different?

A lot of things are different. Espace SD was a private space, self-financed by the sales. The Beirut Art Center is a non-profit space. We don’t sell anything here, that’s the big difference. If the artist wants to sell he can but we don’t have that commercial aspect here.

So how do you keep it running?

We finance it through private donations and sponsorships, actually we have several sources of income. We organize four exhibitions per year that last between two and three months, and keep a small window for other organizations; and when we’re not working we offer the space but don’t produce the exhibitions.

About those four exhibitions…

They can be thematic collectives or solos, for instance we plan to organize a yearly ‘Emerging Artists’ collective to encourage and expose local talent. We’ll post a call to emerging artists to submit their work and a jury will select the participants. There will be a Fidus award, since we’re doing this in partnership with them and it’ll be about $5,000. This will be used to publish their art for instance, but we’ll discuss all this with the artist.

Back to the donations, every artist I’ve met complains the country can’t support art, largely because no one cares, and yet you say Beirut Art Center is basically community supported. So do people care about art or not?

People do care about art; yes many of them might not be able to afford art but there are plenty who can. Proportionally speaking there are many people that are interested in art that will come to exhibitions and fill them up. There is a public for it; we’re only about four million you know. The market isn’t an easy one but you still have clients. Also, we’re supported by donations; that alone should tell you that people are involved and interested and care about art.

Does the government help at all?

We do have problems in that area. It’s not that the Ministry of Culture isn’t interested in art, I mean they’re the Ministry of Culture after all, but there is a limited amount of money and it isn’t enough. We don’t get support from them but it’s OK. The Lebanese community is a better source of support anyway.

So what’s with the whiny artists complaining about sales? Are they pricing too high?

You can price your art in any way you want, but it’s a question of supply and demand, and usually the gallery will get involved. When I was in Espace SD I used to give advice on pricing, but here since we’ve lost the commercial nature we don’t do that anymore.

So the artists come here for exposure alone?

The more you expose your art, the more you can reasonably expect to make from selling it, so yes they’re here for the exposure. Sometimes it isn’t even about selling, just showing something. Lebanon didn’t have a lot of space to show work and Espace SD was a problem because if you didn’t sell the paintings you couldn’t keep displaying them. Artists don’t appreciate that.

It feels like you’re leaving yourself out of this; aren’t you an artist?

I started with photography, sure, but I stopped. When I started to get into the art field at a certain point I had to choose between being an artist and helping the artists. I wanted to work in the art field but I didn’t have the need to produce art, and I just got into the organizational part of it all right off. I found myself there. Lamia Jreij [co-founder of Beirut Art Center] is the artist here.

Before I leave you alone, what’s your favorite place in Lebanon?

I miss my house these days, so I guess that’s my favorite place. It is near Gemmayzeh but this is a tricky question, I don’t know.