Working Area Two: Empower
Context and Challenges
As infrastructure deteriorates in Syria and across the Arab world, the marginalization of the creative sector and its workforce intensifies. Amongst the most vulnerable are those working in the cultural and artistic field, many of whom operate in the informal sector which lacks essential safety frameworks.
In light of these circumstances, emerging artists at the outset of their creative journeys face a shortage of opportunities for higher education, training, and empowerment in the arts. Access to these resources is often limited, and costs can be prohibitively high. Furthermore, they grapple with the absence of an environment that encourages critical and intellectual engagement with the arts and cultural practices within public life.
Concurrently, the safety risks in Syria and surrounding countries for workers in the art and culture sector are also increasing, coinciding with the erosion of public freedoms both in the region and throughout the Western world and beyond, constraints on individual liberties, and a general lack of protection and security for refugees and the most socially, economically, and gender-vulnerable groups.
What Do We Do?
We empower the creative sector and its most vulnerable groups by fostering the emergence of a new generation of talented individuals through different scholarships and support scheme programme calls. Additionally, we help produce critical knowledge and resourceful multimedia content on artistic practices and their intersection with public life. Our programmatic interventions address the unique needs of artists and actively contribute to the growth of a robust and vibrant creative sector.
Our strategy is built on three key pillars
- Promoting the strengthening and development of individual and institutional capacities through open calls for specialized grants, designing focused training programmes, and launching mentorship initiatives.
- Crafting safety programmes tailored to the unique challenges and working conditions within the Syrian context and beyond, including across the Arab region and in the diaspora.
- Establishing strategic partnerships with various institutions and entities within the artistic sector to strike a balance between delivering direct services and engaging in advocacy to achieve the goal of habilitating workers in the artistic and cultural sector.
The Impact of Our Work
We guarantee the ongoing development of creative and cultural production by designing support frameworks that focus on the safety of workers across different sub-sectors in the field. Such support operations that we facilitate are not exclusive to Syria alone but also extend to other countries and regions. We aim to counteract the mass exodus of talent over the last decade from Syria by nurturing a new generation of art producers equipped with the skills needed to safeguard civil life and contribute to crafting a fresh, inspiring narrative about Syria and its people.
The Programmes
AJYAL, SANAD, Research, Maharat
