Artellewa: Art Space, Egypt

The Ard El Lewa neighbourhood “is a section of that mushrooming belt of slums surrounding Greater Cairo” according to Artellewa Director, Hamdy Reda. And this is what gave rise to the creation of Artellewa as a space for art that directly serves the people of the neighbourhood, so as to link them with the broader cultural scene in Cairo and the world at large. In addition to hosting art exhibits and installations for artists, Artellewa offer painting workshops for children, mime workshops and creative writing workshops for imaginative youth aged 15 to 25.
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Al-Resala Centre for Local Media Freedom, Egypt

Al-Resala Centre offers programs such as the Dissemination of Culture for School Children, The Role of School Journalism in Supporting Democracy, Youth and Camera, and the Vanguard of the Future Choir project.  Al-Resala is developing journalism in the provinces and small local communities in order to generate greater transparency, empowerment and efficacy in remedying the problems particular to each small town. The workshops are the first step towards building a strong and influential local press capable of bringing facts to the light.
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Janaklees for Visual Arts, Egypt

Janaklees is supporting independent cinema and visual arts. All programs by Janaklees aim to support artists and media professionals who collectively form the boom in the filmmaking movement in Alexandria. The organization has organized numerous events, such as photography exhibits, screenplay writers workshops and visual writing workshops.
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Nabta Arts and Culture Center, Egypt

The Nabta Centre seeks to create an artistic and cultural forum that supports Sudanese artists and musicians who have fled the political pressures and repression of freedoms in Sudan.  Since 2009 Nabta has succeeded in becoming a safe passageway that facilitates the entrance of Sudanese artists and intellectuals into similar circles in Egypt.
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Mahatat for Contemporary Art, Egypt

The Mahatat for Contemporary Art was set up by five women of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds but with a common interest in contemporary art and a concern by the centralization that kept art in Egypt restricted to certain segments of society. The initiative aims to make art available to broader sectors of the populace in a decentralized way. Trough the “Our Street” project Mahatat is promoting art in public spaces throughout the country.
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B´chira Art Center, Tunisia

The Art Center is located in Sidi Thabet near Tunis is providing a cultural arena where cultures meet to exchange ideas and practices. It´s dedicated to contemporary arts practice in Tunisia and developing networks between artists, curators, institutions and arts centers abroad.

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L´art Rue Foundation, Tunisia

The objective of L’Art Rue is to democratize contemporary art and offer it to as large a number as possible. L’Art Rue has worked, since its creation, on both urban and rural spaces, assisting and producing Tunisian artists’ creations. It leads a research upon new art interventions, based on the lack of resources and spaces of creation, developing a critical analysis and artistic proposals on the relationship between art, society, population and territories.
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Massart for Alternative Culture, Tunisia

Massart Cultural Centre, TUNIS, is an independent space for arts and creativity situated at the juncture of several popular neighborhoods in which youth suffer marginalization. In a few years the centre has evolved into a place where the playwriter meets the poet, the musician the visual artist, and creative artists meet with the neighborhood folks who comes by to join in the activities.
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Ettijahat. Independent Culture, Syria

Ettijahat is aiming at promoting independent culture. Independent art, like independent thoughts and ideas are risky business in Syria, particularly nowadays. Ettijahat work on three parallel and complimentary areas: Mobilization of the independent cultural sector as a part of the social and political life, mapping the cultural Syrian arena and give directions to the upcoming cultural waves during and after the completion of the revolution, and last, lobbying for the change of cultural policy.
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Cultural Media Centre, Yemen

The Cultural Media Centre was founded in order to promote journalistic attention to cultural events and works of art to increase the public interest in order to alter the prevailing modes of behavior and attitudes in a country plagued by illiteracy, ignorance and poverty. The primary focus of activities is building capacities of media professionals in covering cultural life and building capacities of artists in promoting the activities of their organizations so as to increase public participation.
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Orient Culture Foundation, Yemen

This goup of writers is working for cultural development in a new social context. The foundation succeeded in creating a National Group for Cultural Policies that has persuaded the Ministry of Culture to adopt the recommendations of the Cultural Policies Conference. Among the recommendations was the calling for culture to be placed on the agenda of the National Dialogue Conference.
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Arete Foundation for Arts and Culture, Libya

After the Libyan Revolution youth was filled with hope of a future with freedom of expression, creativity and respect for the other, principles that had been reduced to a hollow slogan after forty years in a barren cultural flatland. The Arete Foundation has since managed to organize the Tripoli Festival for International Poetry in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, a Cinema Club that has so far organized 60 screenings in a country that has suffered a total dearth in the art of cinema for 30 years. A video art exhibition called “First Glance” which brought this art form to Libya for the very first time, and produced a theatre performance called “An Enemy of the People”.

Within a few months, the number of followers of the Arete´s Facebook page has climbed to 45,000.
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Ettijahat Independent Culture, Syria: Study for cultural, social and political change

In 2013, Ettijahat launched the first course of the project that contributed to 11 researches that deeply touch important topics being currently experienced in Syria have been produced. The organization aspires to develop the project and initiate a second course that will provide support for a generation of young researchers and lay the foundation stone and core of a cultural research center that attracts young people and enhance their abilities and contributions in achieving cultural, social and political change in Syria.

The project focuses on current topics of cultural research which are closely relevant to the situation currently prevailing in Syria, and the apparent change in the cultural influencers and Syrian artists` perspectives of their relation with the society and the transformations it witnesses, eventually resulting in an anticipate change in the role of culture and arts in the upcoming period in Syria.

The first course of the project has achieved the desired objectives from the program, where Ettijahat provided financial, technical and scientific support for 11 researchers who were fully committed to the project despite the difficult circumstances currently prevailing in Syria. Those young researchers have completed researches closely relevant to the radical transformations currently taking place in Syria through addressing present-day and urgent topics, like inspecting the obstacles facing the process of building democracy in Syria in light of current crisis, or the culture of traditional architecture and its role in the reconstruction phase in Syria.

Moreover, the organization has developed a training guide and designed a training curriculum for the researchers to be published at a later stage in order to achieve more comprehensive benefits from the project.

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