The 100 most influential people in the art world have been announced by ArtReview, and included a wide range of professionals like artists, collectors, curators. More interestingly, four Arabs were featured in the list from the UAE, Lebanon, and Qatar.

Sheikha Hoor, daughter of the ruler of Sharjah, has gotten international acclaim for her role in bringing creative and exciting art projects to the traditionally more conservative emirate through the Sharjah Art Foundation, which she presides over. She also heads the Sharjah Biennal and curates the UAE Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

She has retained the same position on ArtReview's list for three years.

Founder of Ashkal Alwan, otherwise known as the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Tohme has been celebrated for her ability to bring local and international artists together to celebrate different themes. In 2002, she launched the first Home Works Forum on Cultural Practice that saw artists, cultural activists, and writers come together in Beirut for ten days of exhibitions, performances, and talks. Five years later, Tohme founded Video Works, "a biennal moving image festival."

Recently, it was announced she will be curating the 13th Sharjah Biennal, set for 2017.

Zaatari's unique understanding of archival photographs within a political discourse of changing histories made an international splash last spring during the artist's solo show at Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Zaatari's set to exhibit around the globe, including MOMA, New York, and Artspace, Auckland.

As head of Qatar Museums Authority, Sheikha Al-Mayassa has helped propel the small Gulf country to the spotlight through the various projects - like the Qatar National Museum, set to open in 2016 - and activities.

Sheikha Al-Mayassa, the Emir's sister, was previously one of the top 15 art influencers in 2013, mainly due to her "avish spending on art," making her a reputable collector that still makes waves. Recently, Qatar broke its own record for the most ever paid for an artwork by the purchase of Paul Gauguin's 'Will You Marry' for $300 million.

Emtithal 'Emi' Mahmoud, a young Sudanese American woman who is a senior at the prominent Yale University, just won the Individual Poetry Slam Championship (iWPS).

The iWPS championship is the largest annual competition in history of its kind. The four-day event, which is created by the Beltway Poetry Slam and Poetry Slam Inc., is the center point for all distinguished poets from around the world. The event also incorporates a number of workshops and open mics that aim to encourage others to delve deeper into the art world of poetry.

Despite the overwhelming pressure of having to beat 95 other contestants, Emi made the bold move of reciting a poem she had just finished a few hours before.

The poem that won her the award, "Mama," was a tribute to her grandmother who passed away recently and her mother who defined the symbol of strength for the young woman.

“Things get hard and, without the communities and environments that allow us to thrive, we would fall every single time,”  Mahmoud told Yale News . “If I didn’t have the kind of support I have here, in the spoken word community, and everywhere else every time something like this happened, it would take everything out of me,” she explained.

Though Mahmoud comes from a family of writers and poets, she never thought that it was a career she'd pursue. Her parents continuously wrote to educate the world about the Sudanese genocide but actively shielded their children from their work.

By a mere chance however, Mahmoud stumbled upon some of their writings and demanded to know what was going on. Once she was informed, she put pen to paper and started writing, following her parents footsteps.

As the years went by, the Mahmoud family continued to encourage the aspiring poet who often felt guilty for being safe in the United States and not in Sudan. Her grandmother, who did not know how to read or write, pushed Emi to focus on her schooling and her poetry.

"They didn’t teach women how to read or write back then in my country,” Emi said. “Even when she was staying with us here, she was always over my shoulder: ‘Do your thing. Read, read, write.’”

Mahmoud hopes to inspire young poets and writers and on the behalf of Poetry Slam Inc., she will travel to teach and give classes to people who are pursuing a career in the field.

Furthermore, Mahmoud is currently in the process of writing her own book of poetry and hopes to publish it soon.