With a 25 year career in construction across Croatia, New Zealand and Qatar under her belt, Billie Teshich is no stranger to working in the world’s most male-dominated industry. In fact, she loves it. That’s why in 2019, Billie established and now leads the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) in Qatar – part of a global organisation that champions the advancement of women across the industry. Because Billie’s on a mission to reach the next generation of women and show them the world of opportunities construction has to offer. That same world of opportunities has taken Billie all around the world. From her home in Europe to a life in New Zealand and finally, to her dream projects right here in Qatar. A qualified civil engineer, Billie spent her early career in one of Croatia’s leading construction firms (Dom). Working her way up from the factory floor, she was typically the only woman on-site and had to navigate the rigours of operating in an almost exclusively male domain for many years. But those years also afforded Billie the chance to work directly on all kinds of developments – commercial, industrial, retail, public spaces. She also excelled at construction cost engineering and went on to become a skilled quantity surveyor and project manager. Billie used these skills to win a very important contract for Dom at the conclusion of the Croatian war of independence (1991-1995). The United Nations had proposed a programme of work to reconstruct the country’s kindergartens, schools, gymnasiums and community buildings. Through this work with the UN, Billie got the chance to help rebuild her hometown. A few years later, Billie would get to put this rebuilding experience to work in New Zealand – the country she’d moved to in order to raise her family. After major earthquakes struck the city of Christchurch in 2011, parts of the city centre had to be rebuilt and Billie was invited by one of the country’s largest construction firms to contribute her expertise to this. During her time in New Zealand, Billie also earned her Masters in Construction Project Management and provided consultancy services to a range of high profile businesses, real estate agents and developers, regional banks and global insurance companies. She then added to her portfolio of work in the public sector – initially as senior project manager for international giant AECOM and later working with New Zealand’s Ministry of Education (to upgrade a NZD$1bn portfolio of educational facilities) and Ministry of Business and Innovation (to regenerate rural housing). Then came an opportunity to relocate to Doha in 2016 as a Senior Project Manager with world-leading global professional services consultancy, Turner & Townsend. And it was an opportunity very close to her heart. Many years ago, Billie had dreamed of working in the Middle East. She wanted to make her mark on some of the world’s most outrageous, extravagant, beautiful and luxurious mega developments. And since arriving in Qatar, that’s exactly what she’s done. Ascending from Project Lead to Associate Director to Project Delivery Director in a few short years, Billie’s been a driving force behind some of Qatar’s most iconic projects. One example is the Galeries Lafayette Doha – a flagship store for the Galeries Lafayette Group in the Middle East. This stunning 15,000m2 Parisian-inspired high-end luxury retail department store has become one of the most popular shopping experiences in Qatar. Along with the build itself, Billie’s team was also responsible for coordinating tenancies and fit-out for this exclusive development, which is now home to 400 global fashion and cosmetic brands. Another was a multi-billion QAR development spread over 1,150,000m2 of land in Lusail. This included 5-star luxury accommodations such as the Palais Vendome, Le Royal Meridien Marriott Hotel and Residences – as well as Qatar’s largest mall, the Place Vendome. With opulent French architecture, dancing outdoor water fountains and a water canal running through the mall – the Place Vendome delivers an unforgettable shopping experience. It’s also home to 600 stores spread over four levels – everything from high-end luxury to high-street fashion, with scores of entertainment, food and beverage brands as well. Billie was then recruited to work directly with Al Asmakh Real Estate – the world-class development company behind many of Qatar’s most iconic builds. In her role as Projects Director, Billie led the landmark Qatar Entertainment City (QEC) infrastructure development and a number of high-rise residential and commercial projects. As you can see – the scale and complexity of Qatar’s mega developments leverage the best of Billie’s civil engineering background, quantity surveying expertise, project leadership skills and 25 years of experience successfully delivering construction projects around the world. This is why Billie’s new construction consulting firm, Omnivision, is already in demand. As Managing Director of Omnivision, Billie’s able to provide professional project services to some of the biggest players in Qatar’s real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors. This is the challenging work she loves – and as she confirmed in her recent keynote speech at Qatar’s Women in Construction Conference, “there’s no place I’d rather be”. But it’s through her role as President of NAWIC Qatar that Billie wants to help like-minded women blaze their own trail and become Qatar’s next generation of women in construction Leveraging the experience of Billie and other female leaders, NAWIC Qatar works to educate employers and advocate for greater diversity, equality and inclusivity. NAWIC also provides the support, training, mentoring and development women need to succeed in all areas and at all levels of the industry. Because it is possible to thrive in a man’s world – and there is a world of opportunity waiting out there for women willing to take on the challenge.
Billie Teshich: A 25-Year Odyssey in Male-Dominated Industries.
"آرت دبي" يعلن عن قائمة موسعة من صالات العرض في الدورة السادسة عشر الذي يقام في الفترة ما بين 1 حتى 5 مارس 2023
Art Dubai 2023 will take place from 1st to 5th March at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai 16th edition will feature more than 130 exhibitors from over 40 countries including more than 30 participants Expanded second edition of Art Dubai Digital, this year curated by Singapore-based Clara Che Wei Peh Increased participation from leading African and South Asian galleries More exhibiting galleries and artists than ever before from Dubai, reflecting the city’s growing importance as an international art world hub Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 3 February 2023 – Art Dubai presents the final list of exhibiting galleries at its 2023 edition, which will take place at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai from 3rd to 5th March 2023, with previews on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd March. The leading global platform for art and artists from the Middle East and Global South, Art Dubai’s 16th edition will present over 130 presentations from 43 countries across four gallery sections: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba and Art Dubai Digital. The 2023 fair will include over 30 first-time participants and more than 60% of the gallery programme is drawn from the Global South, reaffirming Art Dubai’s position as the leading marketplace for art from this region. Art Dubai’s Artistic Director Pablo del Val commented: “Art Dubai is a global fair, and the strength of the applications we received for our 2023 edition reflect Art Dubai’s increasing importance as the region’s premier art event, the gateway to the Global South and the maturing of the art market here in Dubai. We’re particularly pleased to welcome so many first-time exhibitors into the Art Dubai family. Dubai is rapidly developing into a global financial and technology hub – the city is booming, and is a place that generations of people from all over the world call home.” View the list of galleries participating in Art Dubai 2023 here Art Dubai is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The event is held in partnership with A.R.M. Holding. The fair is sponsored by Swiss Wealth Management Group Julius Baer. Culturally rich developer HUNA is a partner of Art Dubai. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is the fair’s strategic partner. Madinat Jumeirah is the home of Art Dubai. Art Dubai Contemporary presents the very best in cutting-edge contemporary art from 76 galleries from 34 countries, with particular focus on art and artists from the Global South. For our 16th edition, we are pleased to welcome 14 first-time exhibitors, including Art: Concept (Paris), Barakat Contemporary (Seoul), First Floor (Harare) and kó (Lagos), Piedras (Buenos Aires), Shrine Empire (New Delhi), and Barbara Thumm (Berlin). We welcome more South Asian and African galleries than ever before, and we also welcome back 12 galleries who are returning to Art Dubai after a hiatus. These include ALBAREH ART GALLERY (Manama), Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte (Buenos Aires), Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai), Taymour Grahne Projects (London), GVCC (Casablanca), October (London), and Project 88 (Mumbai). The 2023 edition of Art Dubai will feature 24 Dubai-based galleries, more than ever before, reflecting the continued growth of Dubai’s artistic ecosystem and the Emirate’s increasing importance as a global creative and cultural hub. Art Dubai 2023 sees the return of Art Dubai Digital, which launched to critical and commercial success at the 2022 fair. This physical section of Art Dubai provides an annual 360-degree snapshot of the digital art landscape, building bridges between the art and technology worlds, and exploring how artists are utilising new, immersive technologies to collapse the boundaries of the traditional art world. The Art Dubai Digital programme will also feature an extensive talks and education programme. Curated by Singapore-based educator and arts writer Clara Che Wei Peh, the expanded 2023 edition of Art Dubai Digital welcomes galleries with innovative new media programmes, as well as digital platforms building virtual art spaces, alongside artist collectives, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and traditional bricks and mortar galleries that challenge and push forward new models for artistic production and support. The selection is drawn from across 6 continents, reinforcing Art Dubai’s commitment to presenting global perspectives and diversity, and inviting audiences to look beyond traditional art centres, and mapping out the key agents and platforms leading the way. In close dialogue with the region’s pioneering approach to digital economies and worlds, Art Dubai was the first art fair to initiate a dedicated digital section and to build a new home for artists working across a broad spectrum of digital mediums. Highlights for 2023 will include Window Project (Tbilisi); Afrofuturism (Ikoyi, Lagos); Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana, Rome, São Paulo, Paris, Dubai); 6529 (Digital); Unit London; and Dubai-based UAE NFT and Morrow Collective. Bangkok-based Vipash Purichanont curates the 2023 edition of Art Dubai’s Bawwaba section. Meaning ‘gateway’ in Arabic, Bawwaba exclusively features artworks made in the past year or specifically for Art Dubai, and comprises solo presentations by 11 artists hailing from across the Global South. Across a variety of mediums, from painting and tapestry to filmmaking and performance, this section explores how contemporary artists from the Global South bring forth concerns within their worlds, from socio-cultural issues such as the tension between rapid urban development and traditional values, the legacy of colonisation on environment, human relationships in the age of hyperconnectivity, or personal concerns around the meaning of language and void. Participating galleries and artists include: Circle Art Gallery (Nairobi) with Dickens Otieno; PARLIAMENT (Paris) with Achraf Touloub; Silverlens Galleries (Manila / New York) with Gregory Halili; Yeo Workshop (Singapore) with Maryanto; and Hunna Art Gallery (Abu Dhabi Sharjah) with Moza Almatrooshi. The 2023 edition of Art Dubai Modern is curated by Paris-based critic and curator Mouna Mekouar and Italian art historian Lorenzo Giusti (director, GAMeC, Bergamo) and features solo presentations by the region’s Modern masters, reinforcing Art Dubai’s commitment to curatorial scholarship and art historical research. The selection focuses on the pioneers of contemporary art
"آرت دبي" يزيح الستار عن برنامجه الكامل في أكبر دورة فعاليات على الإطلاق والتي تقام في الفترة ما بين 1 - 5 مارس 2023
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 3rd February 2023 – Art Dubai, the leading international art fair for the Middle East and Global South, today announced full programme details for its 16th edition, taking place at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai from 3rd to 5th March 2023 (previews on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd March). Developed in collaboration with a wide range of local and international cultural partners, Art Dubai’s 2023 programme is the fair’s most extensive and ambitious to date, and celebrates Art Dubai’s increasing importance as the meeting point for the Global South’s creative communities. Art Dubai 2023’s gallery programme will feature over 130 presentations from more than 40 countries and six continents, across four sections: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba (featuring exclusively new work) and Art Dubai Digital, and will include more than 30 first-time participants. Further highlights of the 2023 programme include artwork premières by some of the art world’s most exciting names, and a series of 10 newly commissioned performance works by artists from across South Asia. Produced in partnership with Art Dubai’s galleries and several leading South Asian cultural organisations, these new site-specific works will comprise daily performances and food-based experiences, exploring themes of community, celebration, hope, and connection. Art Dubai’s artistic programme is complemented by the fair’s largest ever thought-leadership programme, convening a broad cross-section of the brightest cultural and creative minds. Continuing the fair’s long-standing commitments to dialogue, diverse voices and development of Dubai’s cultural infrastructure, the 2023 programme will feature more than 50 sessions in an ambitious daily conference, talks and education programme. Highlights include the 16th edition of Art Dubai’s flagship Global Art Forum, the first Dubai edition of Christie’s Art+Tech summit, a series of Modern and Collector talks developed in partnership with Dubai Collection, and a new event in partnership with the Art Business Conference, focusing on sustainability. Art Dubai is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The event is held in partnership with A.R.M. Holding. The fair is sponsored by Swiss Wealth Management Group Julius Baer. Culturally rich developer HUNA is a partner of Art Dubai. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is the fair’s strategic partner. Madinat Jumeirah is the home of Art Dubai. Art Dubai’s Executive Director Benedetta Ghione commented: “Art Dubai has always tried to reframe what an art fair can be, and this year’s expanded programme fully reflects our role as a meeting point for the region’s creative industries, both commercial and not-for-profit. As an innovative public-private partnership, we have been an incubator of talent, a catalyst for the creative economy here in Dubai, a convener of great minds, and an entry point to this vibrant ecosystem for the wider cultural sector.” Art Dubai’s Artistic Director Pablo del Val commented: “As the global art fair landscape shifts, Art Dubai continues to play an important role profiling and supporting the cultural ecosystems of the Global South and the programme this year fully reflects this region’s growing importance, energy and vibrancy. One of our strongest ever gallery line-ups, complemented by an expanded commissioning and thought-leadership programme, highlights the breadth of discourse that is happening here, and offers a glimpse into the past, present and future of this important region.” Media accreditation for Art Dubai 2023 closes at noon (GST) on 24th February. Please register here View the list of galleries participating in Art Dubai 2023 here Not-for-profit Programming At the centre of the fair’s not-for-profit programme is Art Dubai Commissions, a platform that invites artists to produce site-specific works at the fair, supporting artistic production by local and international artists. Taking place in a purpose-built space, the 2023 Commissions programme will comprise daily performances and food-based experiences that will explore themes of community, celebration, hope, and connection. Featured artists will include: Prajakta Potnis, Rathin Barman, Gunjan Kumar, Anoli Perera and Tayeba Begum Lipi, + other 5. The programme is developed in close collaboration with several of Art Dubai’s exhibiting galleries and leading institutions who are playing a key role in supporting artists and artistic production in South Asia. Partners on this ambitious project include Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation in collaboration with Britto Arts Trust, Ishara Art Foundation, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Samdani Art Foundation. Art Dubai 2023 marks the 10th edition of Campus Art Dubai (CAD), Art Dubai’s flagship initiative to develop the region’s future cultural leaders and a core component of the fair’s extensive year-round education programme. CAD was the first programme of its kind in the region, developed to provide existing and aspiring members of the region’s cultural and creative community with educational and professional opportunities. The 2023 edition will feature two concurrent strands. The first strand, CAD Public Art, aims to build sector knowledge and capacity in the rapidly developing field of public art commissioning. The second, CAD 10.0 Professional Development, will expand to include placements at both Art Dubai and other leading UAE cultural institutions, including Alserkal Avenue and Art Jameel in Dubai, and Abu Dhabi’s independent platform for emerging artists 421 who, in the second year of collaboration with Art Dubai, will present a group exhibition curated by UAE-based artist and researcher Dania Al Tamimi. Featuring artworks that pose the question: does time move through you, or do you move through time?, the exhibition will explore time as “the binding element of the biography of objects, the active archive of lives, and the solidifying catalyst of experiences”. Launched as a new physical fair section in March 2022, Art Dubai Digital provides an annual 360-degree snapshot of the digital art landscape, with the ambition of building bridges between the world of art and technology and exploring how artists are utilising new, immersive technologies to collapse the boundaries of the traditional art world. Curated by Singapore-based educator and arts writer Clara Che Wei Peh, the expanded 2023 edition of Art Dubai Digital welcomes a selection of participants with innovative new media
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