On Thursday, 8th of February 2018…..
The Docent…
An NES docent stood in a room of the Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Calligraphy. Surrounded by various artifacts and works of art, they rehearsed and re-rehearsed their information. They’d been preparing for this day for weeks, and after extensive research and debriefing, they had finally come fully prepared with information about the room and its contents. At 5:30 PM the doors opened and they heard the first visitor walk into the museum. It didn’t take long before a group of people came into their room. They took a deep breath, and all their nervousness faded away as they began doing what they joined the program for sharing their love of art with others.
The Guest…
The car pulls up to the brightly coloured building. The museum comes into view and you can make out the silhouettes of people at the entrance. Walking inside you’re guided to the first room, and your initial reaction is a combination of wonder and interest as an object piques your interest. Lucky for you, a well-prepared docent is ready to satisfy your curiosity and give you a tour of the room. A full tour of the museum soon to come, with multiple rooms to visit and many docents to meet, you sip your Arabic coffee and have some refreshments at the professional calligrapher at the entrance gracefully pens your name.
The TRDP Event
On the 8th of February, the well known TRDP team and their docents organized an event in the Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Calligraphy.This is the second event of the TRDP team since its establishment as the first student-led docent program in the middle east, last year. The team spent weeks preparing for the event exclusively but have been working hard on learning about and getting to know the museum well. Docents were provided with a handbook that was compiled by the senior docents as a guide to all of the rooms in the museum, however, for the event, the docents themselves had to do extensive research and gather information about their designated rooms. The event was visited by school staff and seniors, as well as diplomatic ambassadors such as Japan, Australia, France, Hungary, Palestine, Canada, Malta, Malaysia, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The docents gave tours of the rooms to the guests and a stall that included calligraphy equipment that was provided by a deputy head’s uncle. A stall was set up that introduced visitors to the types of equipment used for calligraphy.Guests also had the opportunity to have their name written by a calligrapher. The event was a success with guests leaving satisfied after an enjoyable evening. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to such a memorable event including the heads of the program, senior docents, and the junior docents.We are very grateful to Dr.Ziad Rajab and the Senior school staff for providing us with support.
Photo credits go to Miray Mansour 11.1
