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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: North America
I spent the summer wandering Fort York and The Bentway with my camera, chasing the energy of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Festival in Toronto. This gallery collects my 20 favourite shots from those weeks, a visual love letter to a city that turned itself inside out to prove its "The World in a City" motto. Flags, food, strangers singing together. This is what it looked like.
I have covered many events for this blog over the years, but I cannot remember the last time a single stretch of city land held so many flags, languages and shared heartbeats at once. Between June and July, Fort York National Historic Site and The Bentway became the unofficial living room for anyone in Toronto who loves the beautiful game, and I made it my mission to be there with a camera as often as I could.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Visual Arts
AlUla is bringing its design residencies to the heart of Paris this September, and I'm here for it. Life of Forms opens at Lafayette Anticipations during Paris Design Week, pairing works by AlUla-based designers with pieces from the Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin collection. It's the opening act of a bigger AlUla Cultural Season in Paris, and it says a lot about where Saudi design is headed.
I spent 14 years living and working in Saudi Arabia, including time in the arts sector, so AlUla is not an abstraction to me. I first visited back in 2013, long before Wadi AlFann, Desert X AlUla, or any of the tourism infrastructure that now gets photographed for glossy travel features. Back then, the site was still mostly known as Mada'in Saleh, tied to its ancient rock-cut tombs rather than to AlUla (which mainly referred to the ancient traditional town) as a destination brand. There were only two modest hotels nearby, Madain Saleh Hotel and ARAC Hotel, and both needed to be booked weeks in advance. Getting in required special permission from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, arranged well before we ever set foot on site.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Art Exhibits
Yesterday, I attended the media preview for the Gardiner Museum's International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) 2026 in Toronto. Themed "The City and the Commons," the biennial exhibition runs from May 28 to August 16 and brings together Canadian and international ceramic artists exploring urban life, shared spaces and personal sanctuary. I also spoke with two curators who made me rethink everything I thought I knew about clay.
I'll be honest: when the invitation landed in my inbox for a media preview at the Gardiner Museum, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I've always appreciated ceramics in the way most people do — admiring a well-thrown bowl, registering the craftsmanship, then moving on. What I didn't anticipate was that a Wednesday afternoon in a Toronto museum would fundamentally shift how I think about clay as a medium, about cities as living organisms, and about the quiet, persistent ways humans have always used their hands to make sense of the world around them. The Gardiner Museum's International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF 2026) opened its doors to the media yesterday, and I was there for the first look.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Photography
Toronto's CONTACT Photography Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a citywide edition spanning May 2026. Over three decades, the festival has welcomed more than 20 million visitors and showcased over 8,500 artists. This year's program brings together Canadian and international photographers whose work explores decolonization, memory, migration, and identity, through exhibitions, public billboards, photobook fairs, and more.
There's something worth acknowledging when an arts festival reaches its 30th year. In a cultural landscape where programming budgets are perpetually stretched, and audience attention is hard to hold, CONTACT Photography Festival has kept going—and kept growing. Photography has always been a medium I've been passionate about, sitting as it does between documentation and interpretation, between what happened and how we remember it.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Science & Technology
Commercial carpets are replaced far more frequently than most structural materials, yet they rarely feature in sustainability conversations. A new generation of recyclable carpet systems is challenging that oversight. Designed for disassembly, material recovery, and lower lifecycle emissions, these innovations signal a broader shift in how the built environment approaches circularity. Sometimes the most meaningful sustainability breakthroughs are hiding in plain sight.
When we talk about decarbonizing construction, the conversation typically gravitates toward concrete, steel, and mass timber. Structural materials dominate the narrative. Yet the reality of commercial real estate tells a different story. Interior finishes, particularly flooring, are replaced far more frequently than structural components. Their cumulative environmental impact is significant.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Art Exhibits
International curator Elvira Dyangani Ose will lead the second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, launching in autumn 2026. The upcoming edition promises a bold new chapter for the city’s public art landscape, blending global perspectives with local contexts through large-scale installations and community-driven placemaking.
Abu Dhabi is preparing for another ambitious chapter in its growing public art story.
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has announced the appointment of internationally acclaimed curator Elvira Dyangani Ose as Artistic Director of the second edition of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, set to open in autumn 2026 and run into 2027.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Arts
Toronto’s arts sector is navigating rising costs, shrinking space, and fragile funding. Toronto Arts leadership explains why belief must show up as investment, mentorship, and long-term stability.
In this episode of Makers & Shakers, I sit down with Kelly Langgard, Director and CEO of both the Toronto Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Foundation, to discuss how arts funding shapes a city's life.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Lifestyle
Step inside the homes of ten global creative minimalists whose living spaces reflect clarity, cultural depth, and a refined sense of calm. Explore the diverse ways intentional simplicity shapes modern design across continents.
Minimalism continues to shape today’s most compelling interior spaces, but the most inspiring interpretations reach beyond white walls and clean lines. The 10 creatives featured here demonstrate how simplicity becomes a way to connect with culture, craftsmanship, and a distinctly personal point of view. Their homes reveal the many expressions of minimalism across continents, materials, traditions, and lifestyles.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Art Exhibits
Art Dubai’s 20th anniversary line-up signals an exciting new chapter for the region’s cultural landscape. This milestone edition brings together global and regional voices within a framework that reflects the rapid expansion of the Middle East’s contemporary art scene.
I’ve spent the past few years immersed in the arts and culture landscape across Saudi Arabia, especially through my work on Riyadh Art, the Ministry of Culture, and Riyadh's growing contemporary art ecosystem. Along the way, Art Dubai has kept popping up in my research like a recurring reference point. It’s one of those events that consistently shapes conversations about creativity in the region, yet—strangely enough—I’ve never actually attended.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Film
In Nuremberg, James Vanderbilt pits Russell Crowe’s unnervingly charismatic Hermann Göring against Rami Malek’s quietly determined psychiatrist, turning history into a study of power and persuasion.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Photography
The red carpet may look glamorous from the outside, but for those of us behind the lens, it often feels like a full-contact sport. You’re crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with photographers from all over the world, shouting names into the air, elbows up, cameras firing at machine-gun speed. In those few seconds of chaos, you hope for serendipity—a pose, a glance, a fleeting gesture—that crystallizes into the shot.
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About me
Meres J. Weche
Global citizen and digital maven with a passion for telling stories in words & images. Lived & worked on four continents.
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