Culture Resource is pleased to announce the grantees of the October 2019 round of Wijhat. The jury selected 9 grantees out of 100 applications, 6 for international travels and 3 for travels within the Arab region. 

Grantees:

Aya Sabry, Egypt/ Student of Spanish language and literature, Cairo University

The grant enables Aya to take part in the Airgentum Huja de Ruta art residency program in Seville, Spain. The program is dedicated to environmental awareness, social issues and human rights with a special emphasis on women’s rights. Aya will take part in an exhibit that will be organized in the framework of the program’s activities.

Esraa Samir, Egypt/ Student at the STEM School for Science and Technology

The grant enables Esraa to take part in the UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Initiative (UNESCO-WHV) in India. Together with a group of volunteers, she will visit the city of Ahmadabad in order to learn about its historic, cultural and architectural heritage and engage in various activities to preserve its historic sites. The volunteers will also engage in an awareness campaign targeting fellow young people, students and others from the local community, on the importance of the preservation of historic sites.

Bahaa Ansary, Egypt/ Composer

Bahaa received the grant in order to take part, as a resident composer, with Ensemble Le Balcon, a French chamber music orchestra dedicated to modern and contemporary music and that seeks to develop new musical techniques. The ensemble is working on the production of “Licht”, a cycle of seven operas, one for each day of the week, composed by Stockhausen Karlheinz. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Polignac-Singer Foundation.

Khouloud Yassine, Lebanon/ Choreographer 

Khouloud received the Wijhat grant to support her travel to Portugal to take part in Cumplicidades Lisbon International Contemporary Dance Festival in which she will present her dance performance, Heroes. She will also present a two-day workshop on movement writing for dance students and take part in a number of seminars and lectures on contemporary dance.

Dalia Ihab Younis, Egypt/ Content creator and independent artist 

The grant enables Dalia to travel from Egypt to Lebanon in order to give a concert under the Klaxics Project. She will choose a selection of songs from her a capella project and introduce a number of new songs that she and members of her group specifically arranged for the Lebanese audience. Dalia and members of her project will also attend training sessions with the Fayha Choir which is based in Lebanon and is the largest choir that performs a cappella music in Arabic.

Riham Isaac, Palestine/ University professor, independent artist and artistic director

Riham received the grant in order to attend the Awan (Arab Women Artists Now) festival in the United Kingdom. Awan, a platform for Arab women artists and their work, features a diverse program of music, performing arts, film and visual art. Riham will take part in an art residency in which she will work on a solo performance about love, women and personal relations in Arab societies. She will present the results of her research during the festival.

Sabrine Jenhani, Tunisia/ Singer, songwriter & composer 

The grant enables Sabrine to take part in the Visa for Music festival, in Morocco, in which she will perform ZÃY, a project that makes a fusion of traditional folk music with alternative music. She will also take part in the festival’s workshops, trainings and speed meetings, to network with the festival participants and promote her project.

Nawfel Rhayem, Tunisia/ Director with the Theater Lovers Association

Nawfel and the Theater Lovers Association received the grant to present their performance “The Spacious Home”, a play for children, at the Festival for Arab Children’s Theater in Jordan.

Yara Abbas, Palestine/ Communications coordinator at the Palestinian Museum

The grant supports Yara’s travel to Berlin, Germany, to attend a training course on Web programming in the field of arts and culture in order to better integrate her growing web development and design skills with her expertise in the field.

Jury:

Cyrine Gannoun, Tunisia/ Theater director and director of El Hamra Theater

Hooda Al Shawa, Kuwait-Palestine/ Founder and managing director TAQA Productions

Hamour Ziadeh, Sudan/ Novelist  

The Wijhat program aims to promote the arts and culture from the Arab region, both regionally and internationally, by supporting the regional or international travels of artists and cultural actors from this region so as to facilitate their participation in cultural events and activities that enable them to present their work to diverse audiences in wider regional and/or international contexts, to exchange knowledge and expertise with peers, to build their professional capacities or to develop an artistic project.