Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Emirati "Amona" Establishes “With Majed" Gallery in Cairo


Sun 21 Apr 2019 | 04:11 AM
Nour El-Hoda Fouad

Amna Al-Hamidi, an Emirati visual art painter and pioneer of cartoon drawing, established “with Majed” gallery at Tahrir Lounge Goethe project House in Cairo. Al-Hamidi, who is also a member of Emirates press association and the owner of “Amona Al-Mazyona” firm, was interviewed by SEE to inform the audience about "Amona", Majed Magazine and the gallery.

Q. At the beginning, how did “Amona” firm start?

When I started to work in the magazine, I suggested to the magazine founder Ahmed Omar a UAE female character to display to the readers customs of UAE. Mr. Omar stipulated that the character should be a young, smart and funny girl in her 7th year, good at interacting with her family and friends positively.

Q. Why did not Amona disappear like any other character?

The secret behind that was the children loved her facial expressions as she expresses them and their daily life. Dealing with children is not easy; they have a complicated mind and can’t accept fake and naive content. If I provided a fake and bad content, they would not compliment me and say their opinion honestly.

Q. How did you get the children’s opinions?

It is the magazine policy to involve children with us in everything; it gives the credibility to the magazine. We utilize the magazine to ask about their opinions and suggestions.

Q. How can you describe “Majed” magazine?

It is more like a house to its artists and authors, a delightful place to the visitors of children and all of us share ideas for general development.

Q. Do you have children that you are using their ideas?

Actually I have two daughters and they are the secret behind many stories of "Amona", I took those stories from their daily life at school and home.

Q. What is the occasion of the gallery?

The occasion of the gallery is celebration of 41 years since the magazine was established. The magazine annually used to print every edition in new style and ideas. This year the magazine depends on tolerance and it’s the principle of UAE citizens. This year “Majed Character” will appear to interact with the readers through visual stories. The idea of this year is to teach the new generation to accept different people from different religions, races, and point of views. New characters will appear and others will disappear like “Salem’s World” which provided to children morals and information.

Amona was the ambassador of “Majed Magazine” in Cairo to welcome her Egyptian fans. The visual artist Saleh Al-Saadi attended the gallery and the president of Egyptian cartoon association Jumaa Farhat opened the event.

In a competition held during the event, Amona and three children won Majed’s medal and edition of the magazine. In addition to that, workshops were organized to attract children. It worth noting that Al-Hamidi was honored by Fatma Bint Mubarak as “UAE Mother,s” and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohamed Ben Zayed, participated in many national and international galleries.

Contributed by: Menna Seliem