Dr Donald N Baker, Executive Dean of VCUarts Qatar (centre), with students during a cake cutting ceremony held as part of a celebration held yesterday to mark the campus’ 20 years of presence in Qatar. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula
Doha: Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), the first campus in Education City, is marking 20th anniversary of its partnership with Qatar Foundation and yesterday held a celebration to mark the occasion.
The university will be hosting several events to commemorate the occasion and the first of which was for students and held at the Atrium at VCUarts Qatar. It was organized by the VCUQatar’s Student Affairs.
“This year marks the 20th anniversary of our presence here and of our partnership with the Qatar Foundation. Today’s event is a student celebration as part of several events to be held during the year,” said Dr Donald N Baker, Executive Dean of VCUarts Qatar.
Speaking about the impact that VCUarts Qatar is making in Qatar, he said, “Certainly in Qatar as well as in the region a school of arts was a premier activity. This has been unique and really striking. the partnership with the Qatar Foundation as well as with the state of Qatar which is also committed itself to art. So we are part of a broader scheme, we are part of vision 2030, and we are helping in our own way towards it.”
A grand banquet along with the launch of a graphic history of VCUarts’s 20 years of presence in Qatar will be held during the year.
Earlier, VCUarts showcased diversity and success of their alumni through an outstanding exhibition. The exhibition 20/20/20 with artworks of 20 alumni demonstrated their talents as a testimony of success.
Being the first US campus to open in Education City, at present VCUarts Qatar has 361 students and they represent a diverse range of nationalities with students coming from more than 40 different countries. Among them, 95 percent are female, 61 percent Qatari, 40 students have cross-registered at different campuses within Education City. It has a student faculty ratio of 1:6.
The campus offers programs in Art History BA, Fashion Design BFA, Graphic Design BFA, Interior Design BFA, Painting + Printmaking BFA and Design MFA.
VCUarts Qatar is the only campus within Education City to have two female Qatari faculty, and them being VCU graduates makes it unique.
VCUarts Qatar is the Qatar campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia. It was established in 1998 through a partnership with Qatar Foundation.
