Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) is an organization that seeks to support artistic creativity in the Arab region and to encourage cultural exchanges within the region and with developing world. The work of Culture Resource is based on an appreciation of the value of the Arab cultural heritage and an awareness of the need for a new Arab creativity that liberates the imagination and stimulates progress.
Circus Cairo by Yahya Diwer
Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) has launched a new regional initiative in collaboration with the European Culture Foundation and the British Council that Mimeta is co-funding, aiming at building a knowledge base to support planning and cultural cooperation in the Arab region. The first step in this initiative is to conduct an exploratory survey of the policies, legislation and practices that guide the cultural work in eight Arab countries; Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.
This survey will be conducted by a group of Arab researchers from eight countries selected for their expertise in the field of cultural work and their knowledge of the status of cultural work in their countries as well as systematic research methods.
These researchers will begin their work with training under the guidance of European experts on the use of the cultural policies survey model developed by the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research and the Council of Europe with modification of this model to suit the conditions in each of the eight Arab countries. This model, which has been used in Europe since 1998, is currently applied in 41 countries and surveys of these countries are published on the internet and are periodically updated. This model, called “Compendium" is an important tool for decision makers, legislators and all those who work in the cultural field as it provides a clear picture of the laws and organizational structures, material and human resources upon which work in the culture depends.
Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Culture Resource) presents this initiative in the context of its ongoing quest to support the Cultural work in the Arab region. This initiative is a development of cultural management program launched by the Culture Resource in 2005, which provides training programs in Arabic to a large number of cultural managers, as well as the translation and publishing of four key references in Cultural Management; "Guide to the cultural management" and "Arts Management in Turbulent Times" and "Strategic Planning in the Arts: A Practical Guide" and "Art Management Entrepreneurial Style".
