Thuraya Al-Baqsami
Thuraya Al-Baqsami was born 1952 in Kuwait City. She is a Kuwaiti artist and writer.
She began her artistic career at an early age. In 1969 she became a member of the Kuwaiti Art Society, and was awarded a bronze medal in 1971 by the Kuwaiti Society of Formative Artists. She received her academic training in Cairo, Egypt at the "College of Fine Arts" during 1972 and 1973 before moving on in 1981 to earn her Masters Degree in Graphic Book Illustration and Design from the Surikov Institute in Moscow, Russia.
Thuraya Al-Baqsami received the Golden Palm Leaf award from the GCC Biennale in Riad in 1989 and in Doha in 1992. Her work on the book on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Liberte 98, was praised by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. She was awarded the First Prize of the Kuwait National Museum-Exhibition in 1987 and 1992.
The Kuwaiti embassy commissioned 2002 Thuraya Al-Baqsami to design and create the United Buddy Bear on behalf of her native country. The Exhibitions of the United Buddy Bears went to many metropolises on all five continents.
Her work can be found in public and private collections throughout Asia, the Middle East and the United States as well as in Europe.
She received awards in literature for her collection of short stories Cellar Candles from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) in 1993 and the State Award for Children's Literature in 1997 for a children's tale book - The Recollection of small Kuwaiti Fatuma.
References
Lloyd, Fran (1999). Contemporary Arab Women's Art: Dialogues of the present. London: WAL Women's Art Library. ISBN 1860645992.