Giant Masbaha: Participatory Arts in the Making

At Bahrain International Design Week (BIDW) 2013, Equator Connect, in partnership with Talentfreeflow, and creative directors; Mohammad Riyad and Hamoud Morshed of Beyond Brands, demonstrated the spirit and power of participatory art, by facilitating a series of collaborative workshops, where participants worked together to co-create a giant Masbaha prayer bead model. The 33-beaded Masbaha represents a planned sculpture for Saudi Arabia that would form an integral part of the landmark.

Each workshop resulted in the creation of one bead and was a collaborative expression of a topic on sustainability. The 33 beads were joined together in a final masterpiece on the last day of BIDW. This illustrates the planned process to involve different communities in public art through the enjoyment of creating dialogue and understanding on the common theme of sustainability. Designing an inspiring space for, and facilitating creative collaboration between people of different backgrounds to spur innovative thinking, learning by doing, and crafting a spirit of collaboration.