Culture Resource is pleased to announce the appointment of Alma Salem as its new director, effective November 2025, succeeding Helena Nassif, who has served as the organization’s director from September 2017 until October 2025.
Alma Salem is a cultural expert and curator with more than three decades of experience spanning the arts, protecting cultural freedoms, and fostering international cultural relations. She is a permanent fellow of Maryland University Arts Management Institute in Washington, D.C. Alma spent a decade at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), where she managed photographic and cartographic archives and exhibitions. During this time, she established the Arab world’s first digital image bank, a collection of nearly 50,000 photographs and documents, later published in her book Photographies du Levant. She also contributed to the creation of the first Aerial Atlas of the Levant. Following this, she served for another decade as Regional Arts Programs Manager at the British Council for the Arab region. During the Arab Spring, Alma established networks of artists in Syria and abroad, built partnerships, and curated international touring exhibitions in Montreal, London, Paris, Delhi, Seattle, New York, Beirut, Brussels, and beyond. The exhibitions sparked unconventional debates that challenged taboos and stereotypes and questioned political neutrality, positioning the arts as a medium to counter cultural hegemony. As a cultural policy expert, Alma collaborates with leading organizations and numerous governmental bodies in the Arab region. Since 2019, she has led the partnership between the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Global Affairs Canada, serving as Executive Director of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement, which advocates for women’s leadership in politics, public life, and decision-making. In 2015, Alma founded Atelier Alma for Curation & Cultural Consultancy at Place des Arts in Montreal, and in Damascus in 2025.
Alma was selected by a five-member committee from the organization’s Artistic Board & General Assembly. The selection committee reviewed applications and conducted interviews based on key criteria, including an understanding of the cultural landscape in the Arab region within an international context; experience in cultural management and team leadership; expertise in institutional sustainability; and knowledge of non-profit governance.
