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Dear Stan,

What a great idea to see the management of the Crowne Plaza going back to the floor to see what their staff do during the day.

As we progress in our careers it is often very easy to forget the people below us on the ladder so 'well done' to the Crowne Plaza for making sure its bosses remember the hard work that goes into making the hotel run.

Keep up the good work GulfWeekly.

J Khalid, Juffair.

Dear Stan,

ART Lounge would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your constant support over the last seven months in 2009.

With two shows ART Lounge has been trying to keep the Bahrain art scene vibrant and interesting, drawing attention to amazing artists on this wonderful, little island.

With the exhibition Bilaterral relations, a conversation between Bahrain and Germany", ART Lounge reached another level in promoting artists.

Supported and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Information and the German Embassy in Bahrain, I have been more than pleased to witness the progress in increasing the cooperation in cultural projects between the two countries. With 'ART Lounge 4_international' I have been focusing first not only on artists of Bahraini nationality.

Showing the diversity of artistic talent in Bahrain, the exhibition was a great example for cross over communication in art between different nationalities based in Bahrain.

I would like to say thank you to all who appreciate the concept of ART Lounge and encourage me to keep on going.

Many thanks also to all the artists who are working with me, to all my clients, to all the loyal art lovers keeping visiting ART Lounge, to the hosts and sponsors, to the press members, to the Ministry of Culture and Information in Bahrain, to the German Embassy in Bahrain and to the Bahrain Arts Society as well as the Contemporary Arts Society in Bahrain.

This month the ART Lounge web page was updated with two more Bahraini artists and three Bahrain based artists, presenting a selection of their work at www.artlounge08.com gallery, who are Cheney Fairchild (UK, Hassan Al Saari (Bah), Hussain Fateel (Bah), Manfred Erber (Ger) and Christian Ghammachi (Leb). Also you will find updates about exhibitions including previews and press articles.

ART lounge is right now organising to move 'bilateral relations' to Germany, which is expected to be exhibited at Artcenter/ Berlin_Friedrichstrasse in October/November 2009 in cooperation with the Arabic-German-Friendship-Society in Berlin. Four Bahraini artists and four German artists, based in Bahrain, are going to participate again in this great joint venture project, which was introduced at the National Museum Bahrain in April 2009.

An ART Lounge 5 special will take place in November/December 2009, the venue is still to be confirmed.

With all my best regards and best wishes for the summer break and the upcoming holy month of Ramadan I look much forward to meet you again with ART Lounge.

Marion Labani,

ART Lounge.

Dear Stan,

I loved the story about perfume maker Awatif Ali Al Dossary. I love reading about the inspirational people who have been helped by our government's Micro-finance initiative and, since I am not all that good at school, I find their stories inspiring, they give me hope that I may one day make something of myself too and I hope such initiatives continue to run for years to come. Ismael Jidhafs.