(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Doha: With Qatar's design industry having room for further growth, the FIFA World Cup 2022 will undoubtedly bring many rewarding opportunities for designers, said Amir Berbić, the newly appointed Dean of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar).
Berbić also expressed hope that VCUarts Qatar alumni will play a pivotal role in the way that the design profession will continue to evolve in Qatar.
'FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will undoubtedly bring many rewarding opportunities for designers, but what comes after that, between 2023 and 2030, and after 2030, will be just as interesting because it is when we will see how this generation of designers makes a long-lasting impact on Qatar's future, Berbić told The Peninsula.
'I have no doubt that sustainability will play a major part in design thinking and I am certain that any designer with an entrepreneurial spirit who has sustainability as a core tenet will go far. I am also confident that it will bring communities together because people will realize that they have a common cause in working together on designs that have far-reaching, but mutual benefits, he added.
Berbić with immense experience in the Europe and Middle East has joined the VCUarts Qatar at a time when the campus is entering into the third decade. To mention, VCUarts Qatar is the first Qatar Foundation partner campus to open in education City.
'I am starting from a position of respect and recognition of the enormous efforts and successful work that has been done at VCUarts Qatar by everyone who has participated in its life throughout the years, but at the same time I am in a position to participate in helping the University evolve, he said.
'I believe that we should respond to evolving discourses and developments in art and design, to the developing social and cultural conditions here and in the world in general, to professional demands, to technological developments and emerging trends and we should constantly refine the ways in which we engage with the world. We are responsible for that as academics, and as designers and artists, he added.
VCUarts Qatar being the only design campus in Qatar is also aiming to further expand its study programs to cater the need of the country.
'We want to offer more cross-disciplinary courses for our students and other students from across Education City. That is very high on our agenda for the future of the University. We have already developed courses in an effort to articulate the value and significance of the importance of the arts to the wider population, and one of them is a course in health and wellbeing which is one of the first multiversity courses. We are also looking to expand our undergraduate offerings, said Berbić.
'A fashion merchandising minor is being introduced, and we are considering a minor in Film in collaboration with Northwestern University in Qatar and Doha Film Institute. We are in discussions with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar on possible academic program initiatives regarding collaborations between computer science and the arts. We are also in discussion with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), he added.
Some of these exciting plans will come to fruition soon, while others will require more time and planning, according to Berbić.
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