“I just wanted to tell their story to the world”
Matt Horobin on his cooperation with Mawaheb and supporting their mission
Matt Horobin is a global marketing expert and Ambassador of Mawaheb who has played a pivotal role in their development. His involvement has significantly contributed to the studio’s growth and visibility not only within the UAE but across the globe.
How did you become involved with Mawaheb, and what inspired you to support their mission?
I got to know them around ten years ago when I worked for Dubai Airports looking after its global marketing, brand, and communications from a customer engagement perspective. We were always looking for ways to tell the story of the city and the airport as its gateway. We wanted the airport experience to be a preface for the Dubai experience as well as a city farewell. At that time, Dubai Airport was a global hub where people would mostly connect through, and the vast majority of customers within the airport, about 90 to 100 million annually, never went into the city. So, what I foresaw as the airport’s role was to “sell” Dubai to this captive audience that was close to the city and saw glimpses of it out the windows, but hadn’t actually experienced it.
At the time, Dubai was known for many positive things in the world, but also for lacking colour, substance, soul, perhaps. It was my mission to change that misperception. I was used to fondly critiquing the airport itself as being very polished, clean, stark, metallic, and shiny. It was a lovely facility to pass through, and very efficient, but it lacked the texture that would make it authentic and show the real character of the city. So, I started working on repositioning the airport and bringing in the DXB brand, which is very colourful, vibrant, and exciting.
It was a significant commitment to have the airport serve as a platform for Dubai and showcase it in full. One of the ways to do it was through an art platform we created called ‘ArtDXB’. We were trying to celebrate artists from across Dubai and the UAE, and partnered with many local creators. One of my colleagues mentioned Mawaheb to me and advised me to check it out. My team and I went along to the studio. We were immediately compelled to support them. I just wanted to tell their story to the world – and of course I could because the world walked through our building – the airport – on a daily basis. Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports, welcomed our partnership with Mawaheb and has since become their ambassador also.
We wanted to help Mawaheb while recognising that they would be helping us because our huge facility lacked colour, vibrancy, storytelling, and inspiration, while Mawaheb was a space bursting with all of that. Our partnership made perfect sense. It was a win-win.
What kind of projects and events did you do in partnership with Mawaheb?
We brought Mawaheb’s art into Dubai Airport in various formats, including galleries, art shows, speaking engagements, and musical performances. All these events were always well attended and appreciated by the passengers. We also arranged internal events where the artists met the airport team. And we produced relevant content that was shared on social media, blogs, etc.
Most of my work has been in partnerships, and for me, the ultimate expression of the perfect partnership is where you activate it everywhere. Naturally, we looked at commercial opportunities. Mawaheb participated in the Dubai Airshow, a biannual event co-hosted by Dubai Airports. We invited the students to the opening, and one of them created an iconic tribute to the show, a bespoke piece of art we commissioned that was featured within our chalet. After the event, we turned it into a postcard and sold it in partnership with our airport operators.
Thinking about everything the airport could offer, we tried to activate all of the marketing tools and channels in the mission to support Mawaheb and, at the same time, to celebrate our city, our home.
It was a wonderful privilege to work at Dubai Airport in connection with initiatives like Mawaheb. We had this global platform, where we could tell the world the full story of Dubai. And we leveraged it effectively, I think. It was very powerful.
As a global marketing expert, how did your professional expertise influence your approach to supporting Mawaheb’s initiatives? What unique challenges and rewards have you encountered while working with them?
I think that at the heart of any marketing effort is storytelling. When it comes to marketing Mawaheb, it’s particularly about human storytelling, the ability to connect emotionally with people. Even the most functional product needs to build an emotional connection. And Mawaheb has a particularly powerful brand proposition, as it were, in terms of the mission it’s on that naturally connects with most audiences. It’s an easy job to market something like that. As I mentioned earlier, the only hurdle that needs to be overcome is the misconception that the city of Dubai has no depth and is a place of perfection. Whereas, of course, there are more challenging angles to the city. Some people aren’t necessarily living their best lives here, or they have the opportunity to live it, but they need support – they need a place like Mawaheb. I think overcoming this misconception is the only real challenge, but it’s also a massive opportunity because global interest in Dubai is so pronounced currently.
The UAE is well known for its charitable commitment, but at Mawaheb, it is being played out in technicolour through various individuals, different personalities. The amazing twist at the end is that these people don’t need that much support because they are so talented. They just need an opportunity, an outlet, a platform. I’ve seen during the time that I’ve worked with Mawaheb, both at the airport and since, how some of their students have become professional artists.
For example, Abdulla Lutfi, who created the bespoke painting for our airshow, which I mentioned earlier, is a talented creator of iconic black-and-white art and now famous Emirati artist.
The potential’s all there – it’s just a question of unlocking and unveiling it, and this is the mission and magic of Mawaheb.
As we know, Mawaheb is more than just an art studio – it’s an initiative that challenges stereotypes and celebrates diversity. How do you perceive this perspective?
I think the creative arts can bring out true talent and make us think about everything from a different perspective. Mawaheb challenges the concept of ability and disability through their work and their students. That’s one of the great things about Sacha Jafri’s recent project with the Mawaheb students – the concept is about reframing ability and disability. He collaborates with them in a balanced fashion, harnessing their ability and connecting it to create something even greater than some of its parts. And it’s extraordinary.
Mawaheb is a celebration of incredible talent, and that’s absolutely how it should be seen. The good thing is that it’s not a closed space but an open café and studio that allows the community to come in and experience that realisation.
At the Mawaheb studio, you can see people tapping into their innate abilities. You see very happy, comfortable, confident individuals. I love the phenomenal levels of comfort and confidence when I go to the studio and spend time there. You don’t see that in many adults today. We’re all racked with doubt and anxiety about “am I doing the right thing?”, especially regarding our professional and creative output. But the Mawaheb students don’t have that voice in their ear. Instead, they have a total belief that pours out of them, and the outcomes are remarkable.
What are your aspirations for Mawaheb’s growth and their role in promoting inclusivity?
In Dubai, as in the rest of the world, people care about young individuals with special needs – it’s a somewhat natural tendency of humanity. However, there is often less opportunity for adults with additional needs.
With the right support, people of determination can lead fulfilling, creative lives and be valuable members of their communities. Many of the Mawaheb students have learned life skills and then gone on to professional roles, thanks to the bridge – the transition – that Mawaheb embodies.
Ultimately, I believe that Mawaheb can inspire a much-needed shift in society and the world at large, spreading understanding and compassion far and wide. My key mission as Mawaheb’s ambassador is to keep telling their story to the world by brokering partnerships, forging content, and activating campaigns that drive global awareness and recruit more hearts and minds to their cause.
Article written by: Arevik Petrosian
