Tianna Dagher, Co-founder of A Space Between, an Art-in-Health not-for-profit, LGB 1998

Tianna Dagher

La Grande Boissière, 1998

Co-founder A Space Between, an Art-in-Health not-for-profit

England

 Learn more about me :

• Website
• Instagram: @aspacebetween.co.uk

I am the co-founder of an Art-in-Health non-profit, A Space Between, which I founded in 2019 alongside one of my best friends (and fellow Ecolint Alum) Emily Halban. I have been living in London, England since 2004 with my husband Fadi and our two children Mila (13) and Julian (8) and more recently our lockdown puppy Stella. Fadi and I met at McGill University where I was studying English Cultural Studies and Socio-Cultural Anthropology. Over the years, I have worked in the creative and travel industries until I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and launched a B2B travel start-up, IAVRA, in 2010 with my husband, brother and a good friend. IAVRA was acquired in 2014. Many roads have led me to my most recent full-time passion project, A Space Between (ASB). But ultimately we launched ASB from a place of lived experience, setting out to develop and deliver programmes that would inspire a simple creative pause within hospital settings and the community at large. With a passion and mission to elevate creativity as a pillar of health, it remains the most rewarding, meaningful and important work I have done to date. 

There are too many Ecolint memories to whittle down to just one. Wonderful memories spent on school trips to Paris, Rome, and our CAS project building houses for refugees in Croatia. Inspiring days in the art lab preparing for my HL IB Art exhibition presentation or in the theatre rehearsing our end of year plays. Gathering in the Greek theatre to watch our friends perform ‘Black Bird’. What is so telling is that so many of my Ecolint memories are sprinkled with images of smiling faces and so many laughs.  

On a personal level, most of my closest friends remain those I met at Ecolint. As a class, I am amazed how many of us are still regularly in touch, connected over 20 years on. It is a testament to the values instilled by the school and the wonderful multicultural community that the school attracts. My Ecolint experience opened my eyes to a world filled with potential but also a deep understanding of the privilege of our experience. It fostered in me a curiosity to ask questions, a love of learning and ultimately a drive to find ways to give back with empathy, sensitivity and action. 

I don’t think I would do anything differently. I look so fondly on my 4 years at Ecolint and I think I managed to find a perfect balance of work and play. I sometimes wonder whether I should have taken the bolder decision to go to Art school instead of doing a more broad-based Bachelor of Arts. But then I would never have met my husband. And I circled back to Art eventually with my non-profit A Space Between… so no regrets.

My words of wisdom for Ecolint students: don’t underestimate the power of passion and believing in the work that you do. And treasure the friendships you make at Ecolint. They could be the people who stand by your side through all of life’s ups and downs.