Phoenicia Hotel has created the Phoenicia Hotel Art Photo in 2016. It is a yearly competition inviting 12 photographers per year to take an art photo. The year starts in February and ends in January; each month, one photographer spends a night at the hotel and takes one art photo. At the end of the year and for this year on March 19, Phoenicia Hotel displays the 12 art photos at the opening exhibition that takes place in the Phoenicia Lobby during which they announce the winner who wins a prize of $5,000. Nour Chaoui, PR & Communications Executive, tells us more about the competition.


Why do you organize this yearly exhibition and since when?
Phoenicia Hotel Art Photo (PHAP) is an art competition that we initiated in 2016. We pride ourselves on the extensive and rich art collection that the hotel has and we want Phoenicia Hotel to be at the forefront of the art scene in Lebanon and hopefully in the region. To explain further, PHAP is a yearly competition that welcomes one artist each month to stay for one night at the hotel and take one art photo. During their stay, they can of course take multiple photos that we publish on our website but only submit one to enter the competition. What’s special about this competition is that each artist comes in to the hotel with a fresh eye and perceives the hotel in ways that we might overlook. At the end of the 12 months, we showcase the 12 art photos that the artists took during their stay and during this exhibition we announce the winner of the competition chosen by our jury panel made up of 12 members who are artists and collectors. This year, we rewarded not only the first artist; Marcia Gunning for her work ‘Golden Eye’ won 5,727 USD in first place, but also Tarek Haddad in 2nd place for his work ‘Reflecting Time’ won a Fuji Film camera, and Roudy Doumit in 3rd place for his work ‘Tetromino P’ received a voucher for 500 USD to spend at the Fine Art Photography Academy.

How do you select the photographers participating in this exhibition?
PHAP actually has its own website; www.p-h-a-p.com which you can also log into from the Phoenicia website. A large number of people apply through the website, while others also apply from word to mouth. Once the applications are received, we evaluate the artists’ portfolios and get back to them accordingly. PHAP competition is open not only to established photographers and we really encourage up and coming artists and photography enthusiasts to apply.

What are your futures projects?
We are working on a lot of interesting projects both on the creative side and the culinary side. Other than PHAP, we are currently exhibiting origami works of art created by Mrs. Yamaguchi, spouse of H.E the Ambassador of Japan to Lebanon, at Cascade Lounge. We have an exciting long-term project that we want to initiate hopefully in the coming few months. On a separate note, Phoenicia Culinary Institute is our up and coming project that invites culinary enthusiasts and professionals to learn the art of cooking through our cooking classes, club tasting, chefs table and soon to come courses and workshops to develop professionals’ culinary skills.