On Monday, 11 November, with coordination from the A.M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF), a delegation from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign affairs visited one of the “Visual Arts: A Flourishing Field” (VAFF) project’s partners: the Faculty of Art, Music and Design at Birzeit University.
The delegation toured the Faculty’s labs and facilities, including the printing lab which has been recently equipped with ten items of specialist equipment through the support of the VAFF project that is funded by Sweden. The lab will have a focus on traditional as well as new technologies in printing, including lithography, etching, screenprinting, digital printing on materials (wood, plastic, fabrics, paper), and 3D printing.
The delegation met with the Dean of the Faculty and academic staff to learn more about the achievements of the first phase of the partnership with AMQF in the VAFF project. They also discussed the current partnership as part of the second round of project funding; this second round will support seminars and workshops on higher education in the field of arts in Palestine. Within the framework of the Faculty’s existing programmes, guest lecturers and local artists will present lectures, and in order to activate the printing lab, local and international artists will be invited to organise practical masterclasses in different printing techniques. These masterclasses will be open to university staff and students, as well as artists and professionals from outside the university. The support will also help to establish the Faculty’s first artist residency as well as a number of exhibitions of student’s work and an exhibition in the Birzeit University Museum (BZM) gallery.
The visit also included a tour of Jack Persekian’s exhibition in the BZM gallery, entitled “Past Tense”.
The second round of the VAFF project was launched in the beginning of 2019, with six partners being selected from the first round, including the Faculty of Arts, Music and Design, in addition to new partners. The project aspires to achieve a more sustainable, vibrant and innovative visual arts field in Palestine as well as to enhance the capacities and sustainability of visual arts organisations. It further develops art education programmes and other learning opportunities, making them available to artists, art students and professionals. It better enables art organisations to develop their capacities, to be able to offer support to artists and professionals in the field and for that support to extend to the production of new works. It also aims to build a wider audience base for the visual arts sector in Palestine.