The QatArt Handmade Community market has reopened at Katara – the Cultural Village for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, offering Qatar residents and visitors once again unique and customised items at reasonable prices.
“This is the first one after a long gap and it’s so exciting for us, we couldn’t meet each other (before) and now we have the platform again,” QatArt board member Swapna Namboodiri told Gulf Times.
The market has resumed with some 17 out of the usual 20 QatArt members and vendors showcasing an array of handmade products, adhering to Covid-19 safety protocols set by the Ministry of Public Health.
Some of these handicrafts include a variety of jewellery, accessories, artworks, illustrations, graphic designs, craft kits, bags, home decors, chocolates and other homemade food, among others.
“We have unique items all handmade in Qatar. Whatever we see here, we only have one person doing that item.
“I'm an artist, I work with discarded plastics, I make sculptural artworks, so usually I sell through galleries but today I didn't, I have only few sculptures just to showcase but other than that I have art prints and I do paintings on glass and prospects,” Namboodiri said.
Another QatArt board member, Somaiya Ansari, echoed Namboodiri’s view saying that QatArt is a community of crafters and artists in the country, who also uses various social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote and market their products.
“Besides showcasing our products, we also have the artist here in person so that is another thing. They are here and they can answer your queries and people can get in touch with them right and there,” she said.
QatArt’s concept, she stressed, remains to be “handmade and unique items by the creator himself”, and “people get this platform to interact directly with the makers themselves so that is the basic theme of the market.”
The two board members added that the market opening “has gone really well and we are getting good number of people and they really are excited to see our offerings”.
 
 
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