Untitled
Dana Al Rashid and Betty Moore
Mapping
2024/2025
Dana and Betty will collaborate to create a pictorial map of Failaka, accompanied with a zine that provides context about the art. The zine will be rooted in research utilizing academic journals and primary source documents. Images on the map will include Bronze Age, Hellenistic, Medieval, and Modern archaeological sites/artifacts, references to Failichawi oral history, and depictions of the flora and fauna of the island.
Dana Al Rashid
Dana Al Rashid is an architect and visual artist from Kuwait. She has created a unique style coined ‘Modern Miniatures’ in which she uses a modernized version of the ancient Persian miniature style to tackle contemporary and relevant topics. Her artwork also focuses on social issues, with historic building preservation, technological advancement vs nature, consumerism, low income expat workers, body image, and the state of the world during the pandemic as common themes. Her artwork has a time traveling quality to it, with heavy referencing from ancient metaphysical manuscripts.
The artwork has been well received, having her own solo digital art gallery at the Khaleeji Art Museum, as well as being published in Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Art & Object, and Kuwait times to name a few. She has been invited to many residencies, including Art Omi (New York), The Studios of Key West (Florida), and the Promenade Culture Center (Kuwait). She is currently doing a residency at Al Sadu House. She continues to explore and expand incorporating different themes and techniques into her artwork.
Dana also has a strong background in journalism. Her work is regularly published in local, regional, as well as international newspapers, magazines, and online publications. She often illustrates and even animates her own articles and poems.
A regular writer in Al Jarida Newspaper, Sekka magazine and Unootha, as well as various contributions in Sail magazine, Kuwait Times, Jeem, Madswirl, and many others. Dana tackles the social issues faced daily with a philosophical bent, be it in article or poetry form. She is bilingual and published work in both Arabic and English.
Betty Moore
Betty Moore is a Social Studies teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition to teaching history, she is passionate about researching, documenting, and sharing details about historical, archaeological, and cultural sites. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico and a Master’s Degree in History from Emporia State University. From 2014 to 2017, she lived in Isniq, Kosovo as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She taught English at the local primary school and worked alongside the late historian and anthropologist Rexhep Maksutaj to create short documentaries about Albanian heritage. Later, while teaching in Kuwait, she became deeply interested in the history of the country, particularly Failaka Island. To further explore her fascination with the ancient world, she completed an archaeological field school at the Roman city of Antiochia ad Cragum in south-central Turkey during the summer of 2024.
