Dubai: Public benches, which have played a great role in boosting community bonds in the olden times, are set to be back in a modern version in Dubai to help build bridges among the city’s multicultural communities.
Art installations of creatively designed benches, which convey messages of inclusion and cohesion, are planned to be fixed across public spaces in the emirate through a new initiative called Yalsatna.
This was announced on Thursday as the prototypes of these benches were unveiled at the Ramadan windows of Bloomingdale’s store in The Dubai Mall.
Yalsatna, the Emirati word for “our seating,” is the brainchild of Budoor Saeed Al Raqbani (left), founder and director of Kalimati Communication and Rehabilitation Centre.
Bloomingdale’s has partnered with her to support the community initiative under the patronage of the Community Development Authority (CDA). The launch of the pilot phase of the project, during which seven designs of the benches were unveiled in the windows of Bloomingdale’s, was attended by Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar, director-general of the CDA and several others from different walks of life.
The benches will be displayed on the windows of the upscale department store from Al Tayer Group throughout the month of Ramadan. It is expected that they would help the public familiarise with the design and concept of the benches that will be coming up in the public areas in the next phase of the project.
The vision of Yalsatna is to promote the importance of “sitting together” as a modern strategy for social communication, in this fast paced, predominantly digital world, through the design and installation of benches in public spaces all over Dubai, said Al Raqbani.
“In Arabian culture, the majlis has always served as the focal point for societal development and engagement. Nowadays, fast-paced life leaves little time for communities to come together and appreciate its beautiful surroundings.”
She said the aim of the Yalsatna benches is to creatively use art to solve a social issue.
“We have so many nationalities in Dubai. We respect everyone and we have tolerance for everyone. But yet we are not that well-merged together in the social sense,” she told Gulf News after the launch.
“We want to create a strong rapport between each other. We want to make these art installations of benches for us to communicate together, understand with each other and not be frightened by the differences we have … Also to have empathy with people with special needs rather than having sympathy with them.”
She said the benches are expected to be the platform that encourages people from different walks of life and unknown to each other to sit together and strike a conversation, understand each other, learn from and be inspired by one another.
“Through the campaign, we can bring people together and devote joint collaborations from different ethnicities so we can build bridges and narrow the gaps. This is our form of giving, for UAE’s Year of Giving.”
Shaikha Dr Alia Humaid Al Qasimi (left), community development expert at CDA, said the art works have represented a lot of social inclusion at many levels.
“It is a first-of-its-kind social art initiative here and probably in the Middle East … This goes very much with the Year of Giving and CDA’s new direction of inclusion and cohesion of the society in Dubai.”
The partners are currently in talks with various organisations for finalising the launch of the next phase of the campaign in which the real benches with the seven designs of the prototypes would be installed in the coming months.
Saeed Al Tayer, CEO, planning and social development sector in the CDA, said that the ‘Yalsatna’ initiative will no doubt help with drawing attention to the most prominent issues in the UAE society, and has identified seven sectors that are important to the community members.
They are transportation, culture and heritage, social, sport, education, the determined ones [people with special needs] and multimedia.
Tanya Atkinson, SVP Commercial – Department Stores, Home & Jewellery at Al Tayer Insignia, said the seven dedicated Ramadan-themed windows at Bloomingdale’s will be on display till Eid Al Fitr.
