College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) is hosting a charity art and photography auction on May 22 in celebration of a decade of excellence in Qatar. More than 100 selections of art and photography will be up for bids. All the  proceeds of the charity will go to Qatar Red Crescent.

The majority of the art and photography pieces have been donated by members of CNA-Q’s Art  and Photography clubs. Additionally, much of the art was produced by a variety of international professional artists as part of two art symposia held at CNA-Q over the past two years. 

The live auction will be hosted by Dr. Ken MacLeod, president of CNA-Q, and Hussain al-Marri, president of the Student Representative Council at CNA-Q, and will be held from 6pm to 9pm.

Regarding the auction, Dr. MacLeod said “Our goal is to raise as much money as possible for our charity, Qatar Red Crescent. There are two ways of doing that; one is lowering our expenses to put the event on, and the other is raising as much money on our auction as we can.  Well, as of yesterday, both of those just received a tremendous boost.”

The Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB), CEO Abdulbasit Ahman al-Shaibei announced that QIIB will cover the charity event expenses up to a maximum of QR 25,000, covering the bulk of event expenses. Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah bin Thani al-Thani, vice-chair of the Board of QIIB and longtime business associate of CNA-Q, has announced that he personally will match all funds raised from the event up to a maximum of QR100,000.

Dr MacLeod added, “These are extremely generous contributions to this event and speaking of which, we must also acknowledge our ongoing 10-year sponsor Qatar Petroleum. Our prime goal now is to have our auction be as successful as possible so that we maximise Sheikh Ali’s generous offer.”