One of the oldest intermediary cultural organizations in the Arab region, Culture Resource/ Al Mawred (CR) has pioneered work on both cultural policy research/action and on artist protection. Today, Culture Resource/ Al Mawred continues to refine and adapt its programs to the current realities of the Arab region, characterized by closure of space for policy interventions and serious risks to free artistic expression and those who exercise it.
The activities for the cultural policies component of the All Around Culture (AAC) program was officially launched in March 2022. The AAC includes a participatory policy research on the cultural ecosystem in the Arab region and access to culture and intercultural dialogue. A call was opened in July 2022 for researchers interested in regional cultural policies to implement the consultancy that includes conducting the policy research, developing the content of the policy dialogue, and drafting the policy recommendations. The research will lead as planned to a 3-day regional policy dialogue event in the second half of 2023 and a white paper with bottom-up policy recommendations from AAC’s stakeholders. Culture Resource has invested tremendously in building this area of expertise since 2009.
The Stand for Art program contributed to safeguarding artistic expression in the Arab region by maintaining the presence of 15 artists and cultural actors in the Arab region coming from Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. By covering their living, housing, legal, and wellbeing expenses, the program has been supporting their right to participation in culture and has been ensuring that the cultural ecosystem upholds diversity, creativity, and freedom of expression. The team specifically witnesses the impact of their work by continuously following up with the program’s grantees and alumni. Over the past year several artists that received support could pursue their work and artistic creativity in a suitable environment for freedom of expression during and/or post-relocation.
An Egyptian writer who faced imprisonment and legal prosecution and threats even after his release, fled to Lebanon in 2021 and applied to the SfA program which covered living and housing costs for 6 months as well as the settlement of his legal residency status. He is currently a temporary legal resident in Lebanon registered in a Lebanese university and is working on his second book in his new settlement. Another writer from Libya was threatened because of his contribution to an anthology of short stories. After getting relocated to Tunisia and hosted in an art residency for 6 months, he was capable of writing the first draft of a novel that was later awarded a prestigious literary award.
Aside from the emergency fund, CR worked on building the protection network of arts and culture organizations across the region to systematize knowledge gained from the SfA program into a set of protocols for a developing network of artists’ residencies and independent cultural organizations in artists rights. Eighteen arts and culture organizations were invited through a closed call to apply to become part of the nucleus for a network on artists at risk protection within the Arab region. Of the eighteen, ten organizations were selected to participate in a training, join the nucleus, and become focal points for artist protection in the region. With the support of an expert in artist protection, the team worked on building the content of the artist protection training to be conducted in the first half of 2023 to at least 2 representatives from each chosen organization. The training workshop curriculum will include 3 modules: relevant rights, legislation and enforcement; professional development; and care, self-care and collective care, to enhance the support offered to artists at risk in the region.
The aims of this initiative are to create a bond based on shared learning and knowledge-exchange process for organization staff, to develop a ‘culture of protecting artists’ across the region in order to prevent persecution, better protect and defend artists at risk, improve capacity to shelter artists within the Arab region and improve capacity to welcome and protect relocated artists back to their home countries.
