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Alexis Boutros, Alba's founder
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Alexis Boutros’ lifetime dream had been to give his young countrymen the means for developing their artistic talents. Undeterred in his will to do that, in 1937 he created the AMA: Association des Musiciens Amateurs (Association of Amateur Musicians). In time, it became the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, the oldest national institution of higher education in Lebanon.
Music was his passion. An efficient and ambitious engineer, he was also an excellent cello player. He set up an orchestra and conducted a choir composed solely of amateurs. He led them in performances in Lebanon and in neighbouring countries, and they were acclaimed by an enthusiastic audience.
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Alba was founded in 1937 as a public institution with diplomas awarded by the Ministry of National Education. Alexis Boutros headed the Académie until his sudden passing in December 1979. He was a visionary with outstanding intelligence and tenacity. He certainly set an example for the Lebanese State, which a few years after the founding of Alba started the enterprise of establishing the Lebanese University.
Georges Haddad took over in 1979 after Alexis Boutros passed away. He had been his loyal assistant and right-hand man for many years. During the next 30 years, and until his death in 2009, Georges Haddad took up the reins and devoted his life to the Académie.
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It is now André Bekhazi, dean since April 30, 2010, who presides over the future of Alba.
André Bekhazi is well acquainted with the institution he directs, since he himself was a student and then a teacher at the School of Architecture.
After having founded his own agency in 1972, and realized more than a hundred projects of different nature (houses, churches, schools, sports clubs and hospitals) in Lebanon and abroad, he was very much involved with the College of Engineers and Architects of Beirut: he is a member of the council of the Order, and president of the section of Architects of the Order, from 2001 to 2003, and from 2009 to 2012.
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