Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Doris Bittar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Doris, can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

As part of community work, I have created three nonprofits with fiscal sponsorships from 2014 to the present. I curated an international art exhibit on the migration of labor called, “Labor Migrant Gulf” under the sponsorship of an interfaith organization in San Diego. Another nonprofit created in 2017 was an English as a Second Language-ESL called TaLL-Teach and Learn Literacy, a tailored program for newly arrived Syrian refugees in San Diego under the sponsorship of PANA- the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans.
My current project is to revive Protea Gallery as a nonprofit art gallery with a powerful mission to uplift Arab artists’ work within an inclusive path that supports the human rights of all people here and abroad. Our first exhibit will open at the Brewery in Los Angeles, an artist’s live-work complex, during Artwalk 2022 on April 9th and 10th. The exhibit, “Houb Wa Harb – Love and War” will premiere to highlight Arab American artists from throughout the United States, but mostly from Southern California. Our nonprofit fiscal sponsor is the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Research Institute based in Washington, DC.

Loujain Bagar, Protea Gallery’s curator, is of Saudi Arabian and Cuban descent, and a graduate of USC’s curatorial graduate program. Though she has participated in hanging many exhibits, this is her first where she manages the content, hanging, and aesthetic details. She came up with the “Love and War” title of the exhibit that I love. Loujain and the dynamic exhibiting artists; Amal Amer, Zeina Baltagi, Joyce Dallal, Yasmine Kasem, Caitlin Abadire-Mullally, and Naima Dallal-White collectively represent the countries of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.

Doris, introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As an interdisciplinary artist, I explore heritage and identity through patterns and decorative motifs. For me, patterns are cultural DNA that mutate in tandem with human migration and movement. I love what I do and enormously privileged to joyfully practice my art. I have always engaged with my community, and often it parallels my artistic practice. I exhibit internationally and collaborate with artists, musicians, and poets. My art is in permanent museum collections in North America, Europe and the Arab World.

My family immigrated to the United States (New York) when I was a child and the immigrant experience has deeply and poignantly affected how I proceed in my work, and my life. I received a BFA from the State University of New York and earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego. I have taught at the university level for 25 years: University of California San Diego, the American University of Beirut, and other institutions. I was a visiting scholar at NYU in 2017 and have participated in numerous international residencies. I am a member of Arab Amp, and core member of Gulf Labor. I write usually when I cannot find answers to questions I have. As a result I have published over 60 essays, opinion pieces, and reviews on traditional and contemporary Arabic art, calligraphy, politics, film, and poetry.

I have had a lifelong commitment to human rights, civil and labor rights, and peace. I founded three nonprofits: Teach & Learn Literacy-TaLL, an ESL program for refugees, and Protea Gallery for SWANA and Arab arts. I enthusiastically serve on the San Diego Union-Tribune Community Advisory Board to amplify the voices of Arab Americans, and I am the Southern California Organizer for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. I am married and have two sons who are creative artists in their own right. My husband, Jim Rauch is an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego, and we work together on learning, working with the community, and effecting each others’ research and interests. For example, we formed and ran several Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue groups for seven years and continue to write newsletters for our communities.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My current creative project, Colonial Colonnade is an expansive project touching upon many disciplines and is scheduled to be shown at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan in 2024. It began over a year ago and its parameters seem boundless and continue my lifelong project of folding history, pattern, and improvisation together. Leyya Tawil, founder of ArabAmp, awarded me a grant through the California Arts Council to create four videos exploring Colonial Colonnade’s parameters as visualizations, sound, and movement. Colonial Colonnade enlists the Arabic and English languages to join forces to examine how language contextualized narratives. I am working with musicians, dancers, and poets who improvisationally navigate the giant matrix of words for new poetry, music, dance, and other orations and visualizations. Arabic, in this context, is not mysterious or left to the imagination. It is literally bound to its English translation. The possibility of mistranslation and fear of the unknown is and is not a factor. Arabic is also now bonded to English, and may dominate it. The power of Arabic to trump English and dominate is part of the mix. It is a very energized environment that promises to create some equalizing and frank realizations. An interpretative text of Colonial Colonnade, a new project, has been published in Mizna’s experimental issue this Spring 2022. Brooklyn-based dancer Nadia Khayrallah, poet/artist Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, and musician Clarissa Bitar are already part of Colonial Colonnade.

The intertwined Arabic and English words sit on a giant Arab star matrix lattice. Colonial Colonnade’s reach seems immeasurable and I will continue to learn and harvest its mystery for some time to come. Everything you see now and in the near future are sketches on giant drawings, musings written in journals, embodied within short videos, collages, and digital images. This is how I gain understanding, knowledge, and form collaborations within the broader body of the arts. Colonial Colonnade is like frolicking dolphins in the water that swim, dive deep, and leap into the air to reemerge as new creations and experiments to share with all willing to be curious. I hope to have a few final pieces and a performance ready to share by the autumn 2022. In 2024 Colonial Colonnade will be exhibited at the Arab American National Museum as part of a residency. .

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Unfortunately, I suffered discrimination from various liberal institutions when working at California State University where I taught at as an adjunct professor. Also, a museum of contemporary art in San Diego. After 9-11 I was curated into an exhibit and then uninvited stating that it was because I was an Arab. I was shocked. Even though it has been 20 years, I continue to feel the pain of it. Mainly, I write about it and share it with you, not out of pain, but relevancy. The world is no longer patient about the exclusion of Black and Brown people. Arab American artists like me have silently suffered erasure for a long time and are now courageously emboldened to speak/witness our truths and tell our stories. Americans are also ready to listen.

When I shared what happened with artist friends and critic Bob Pincus, they were stunned, shaken, and uncomfortable but also acknowledged what happened, and continue to be my friends. Bob suggested I prove myself nationally and internationally outside of San Diego, and that in the future, the museum may invite me back because of my success. I wiped my tears and did just that for the next 20 years.

The Arab American National Museum was being built and solicited me regarding gallery, entrance, and building details. I was curated into the debut exhibit in 2005. The museum became Arab American artists’ entry to the larger world. I was invited to several residencies in Cairo, Paris, Copenhagen, and Sharjah along with Ravenna, Venice, and Berlin. I won an award at one of three Biennials. As a founding member of Gulf Labor – half of us are Arab Americans – we showed at the Venice Biennale in 2015. Our work generated articles in “The New Yorker” and the “New York Times.”I was quoted in “the Guardian” and “the Nation.” We published, “The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor,” a book that was widely reviewed. We continue to inspire and advise human rights and labor groups to this day. Since that experience, I made a name for myself as an international artist who traces migratory patterns that reveal how shared heritages migrate, overlap, and mutate. It remains to be seen if this and other museums of contemporary art continue to block Arab American artists. Thankfully, I am not dependent on that affirmation. It is up to them to advance their thinking. Showing abroad is a high like no other, and the intelligent level of discourse is challenging in ways that continue to feed my art today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dorisbittar.com
• Instagram: doris.bittar
• Facebook: Doris Bittar
• Linkedin: Doris Bittar
• Twitter: DorisBittar
• Youtube: Doris Bittar

Image Credits
Daisy Ramirez for feature photo montage Joyce Dallal for installation/performance photos of Colonial Colonnade