How London Craft Week Is Supporting Lebanese Designers

In support of rebuilding Beirut’s cultural community following the August 4 blasts, an initiative in October was launched in partnership with an array of creatives

London Craft Week is a festival that provides a platform for over 250 designers to showcase their talents. This year, Downtown Design’s Rue Kothari and designer Mira Hawa came together to curate a series of short films for the festival’s ‘Create Day’, which dedicated a whole segment to Lebanese designers.

The designers were given a platform to showcase their creativity, with the event looking to highlight the need for continuous support in rebuilding Beirut’s cultural community following the devastating August 4 blasts. 

Katya Traboulsi. Eyes Only. 2020

The event featured renowned designers such as Sayar & Garibeh, Cynthia Raffoul, Karen Chekerdjian, design duo Huda Baroudi and Maria Hibri of Bokja Design Studio, Anastasia Nysten and Anastasia Elrouss.

Kothari, one of the curators of the event, has acted as a creative consultant for brands all around the world. Similarly, Hawa is a Danish-Lebanese project designer who recently co-curated the Artists with Beirut online auction to assist the Beirut Emergency Fund 2020, and also led the project Icon City Brilliant Beirut at Dubai Design Week (2015).

Irene Ghanem. Ma rosace a brûlÃ. 2019

‘Rebuild Beirut’ took place in Beirut/London on 10 October at 10am BST (Beirut 12PM) on createday.org. The films will be aired up until 24 October, 2020.