Slow Listening Port Cities is a digital sound project capturing the distinctive sounds of Port Cities as part of a visual arts exhibition
Author: Jack Welsh
We are looking for committed volunteers to play a key part in realising the UK’s premier annual festival of Arab arts and culture in Liverpool this summer.
Would you like to learn new skills and meet new people? Are you interested in learning about how an international arts festival works, or develop your experience of working with people in a public-facing arts setting?
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival runs Friday 12 – Sunday 21 July 2024. We are especially looking for support to deliver these key events during the festival:
Visual arts
Port Cities exhibition (Friday 12 – Saturday 20 July, Space Liverpool)
Port Cities symposium (Monday 15 July, Bluecoat)
Performances
Arabs Are Not Funny (Saturday 13 July, Unity Theatre)
Screening of at At Home in Gaza and London (Monday 15 July, Bluecoat)
Marina Barham: A Voice for Theatre and Culture in Palestine (Thursday 18 July, Unity Theatre)
Oranges and Stones (Thursday 18 July, Unity Theatre)
Chambers of the Heart (Friday 19 and Saturday 20 July, Unity Theatre)
The Ayoub Sisters (Saturday 20 July, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Music Room)
Family Day
Family Day (Sunday 21 July at Sefton Park Palm House – all day)
Volunteers will need to be available during the festival period and ideally commit to two shifts. Working with our small but dedicated team will provide volunteers with practical experience of event logistics and audience engagement in a public-facing environment.
Travel expenses will be covered, along with expenses towards lunch, if applicable for the shift.
A full volunteer induction will be held in Liverpool or via Zoom before the festival.
Interested in getting involved? Please complete this online form before Wednesday 26 June. We’ll be in touch shortly afterwards to follow up.
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2024 - Volunteers
We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us deliver Liverpool Arab Arts Festival between Friday 12 - Sunday 21 July 2024. Volunteers can expect: - A chance to work on an international arts festival. - Watch events for free and work with some of Liverpool's leading cultural and community venues. - Travel costs are reimbursed. Deadline Thursday 27 June.
Today we are pleased to announce our first events of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2024.
I want to begin by acknowledging and recognising the devastating situation across our Arab world due to war and violence.
Are you interested in being part of our 2024 Family Day event as a trader?
Family Day takes place on Sunday 21 July 2024, at the Palm House in Sefton Park.
Each year we welcome a variety of traders, selling food and drink, authentic Arab goods, or simply promoting causes or initiatives that reflect our ethos.
Trading hours are 12:00 to 17:00. All trading areas will be in the grounds of the venue, on either grass or hardstanding, and within a dedicated marquee or similar structure.
We especially welcome traders whose product or service closely aligns with the objectives of LAAF, but all applications will be considered. The cost to trade will be determined on the answers to the questions on the form. we will contact you directly via the email address you provide.
Fill in your application form here
Image credit: Family Day 2023. Image by Andrew AB Photography.
We are looking for a freelance Marketing Coordinator (or agency) to lead on deliver the marketing for our 2024 festival. The successful candidate will ensure the wider visibility of the festival programme via targeted marketing, PR and social media activities.
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival will take place on Friday 12 – Sunday 21 July 2024, featuring an international programme of visual art, music, performance by leading Arab artists at key Liverpool cultural and community venues.
Contract duration: April – 31st July 2024. We anticipate work commencing in early April (to be agreed)
Key relationships: LAAF’s artistic team, LAAF Board, festival artists and partners, translators, designers, suppliers
Fee: £4,000 including VAT for 36 days, on a self-employed basis. Days within fee to be discussed with the successful candidate.
Location: Remotely, with on-site working for festival events. The successful candidate is welcome to use LAAF’s office at Bluecoat during the period.
All self-employed candidates must have the right to live and work in the UK.
Download:
Freelance Marketing Coordinator role description
Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
Main Responsibilities:
- To develop and deliver an achievable marketing campaign for LAAF’s 2024 festival, working to tight budget and meeting KPIs.
- Develop an agreed timeline and delivery plan for social media content across LAAF’s key social platforms, supporting in the creation and posting of material. This includes the production of materials using key assets and templates from designers.
- Work with LAAF’s artistic team, designers and suppliers to deliver targeted print campaigns as agreed, balancing cost and environmental impact with accessibility for audiences.
- Manage the English to Arabic translation process for core festival text.
- Lead on PR activities, including organising and managing press interviews with artists and staff.
- Coordinate and send invitations to key stakeholders for festival launch event.
- Manage LAAF’s digital channels in the period, including promoting sponsors, partners, artists, events and donations.
- Update LAAF’s WordPress website with festival events.
- Act as key contact in collation of copy, images, links, credits and access information to promote the festival programme in a high-quality manner.
- Lead on PR activities, including writing and circulating press releases for festival activities.
- Oversee the distribution of print marketing materials, including partner venues.
- Contribute key data from activities for inclusion in the festival evaluation report.
Audience Development:
- Support LAAF’s evaluation and data collection processes for the festival, particularly via digital platforms and social media.
- Take a creative approach to increasing traffic to LAAF’s website and social media platforms.
General:
- Work closely with LAAF’s Artistic team and LAAF Board to ensure visibility of the programme.
- To ensure branding and other marketing obligations to funders and sponsors are met.
- Carry out duties with full regard to LAAF’s Equal Opportunities policy.
- Be available throughout the festival period, with rota to be agreed in advance.
- Carry out other duties commensurate as required with the role.
Person specification
- A minimum of 3 years of marketing experience in the cultural sector.
- Must possess knowledge and experience of adhering to GDPR guidelines.
- Understanding of Arts Council England Illuminate audience data collation and reporting.
- Understanding of cultural sensitivities in relation to image and copy control in dual languages.
- Demonstrate experience in project coordination.
- Excellent communication and time management skills.
- Effective in managing relationships at all levels.
- Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
- Strong attention to detail and thoroughness in your work.
- Sensitivity and understanding to the different contexts of LAAF’s diverse work and audiences.
- Excellent IT skills, including managing websites and social media.
- A flexible and proactive approach to work.
- Ability to work occasional evening and weekend shifts during the festival.
To apply
Please submit the following:
- An Expression of Interest (maximum 2 A4 pages), outlining your experience and how you meet the Job Description.
- Any relevant links to work or campaigns.
- Completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
Deadline: 10am, Tuesday 2 April 2024. Please email applications to: admin@arabicartsfestival.co.uk
Image: Maya Youssef at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2023. Image: Andrew AB Photography.
We are delighted to be working with MACFEST to host an exhibition by British-Yemeni artist, Huda Nagi, at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.
MACFEST 2024
10:30am – 4:30pm
Saturday 2 March 2024
The Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6ER
Tickets are free and can be booked online.
This event is part of the Muslim Women’s Arts Festival.
From the 23rd February to 15th July 2024 Muslim Arts and Culture Festival together with Muslim Women’s Arts Foundation and Festival, presents a diverse selection of speakers, artists, cultures and more. See the fulll programme at: https://macfest.org.uk/
Image courtesy of Huda Nagi
Date: Tuesday 13 February
Venue: Lecture Room 1, Liverpool John Moores University, The John Lennon Art and Design Building, 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD
Time: 6 – 7:30pm
Free, booking required
Join us this Tuesday for a talk by international artists, Mohamed Abdelkarim, Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Siska, at Liverpool John Moores University’s School of Art and Design.
Port Cities is a new international visual arts project presented by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival in partnership with the British Council – MENA.
Mohamed Abdelkarim, Laila Hida, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, and Siska are currently on a research residency in Liverpool for the project. This will inform the development of new artwork exploring the social, historical and cultural complexities of port cities in Liverpool, as well as those within the Middle East and North Africa region.
The exhibition will premiere at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival in July 2024 before travelling to Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
About the artists
Mohamed Abdelkarim (1983) lives and works between Cairo, Rotterdam, and Vienna, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Akademie der bildenden Künste.
Abdelkarim’s works have been included in the Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013, Guild Master of Cabaret Voltaire, Manifesta 11, 2016, Live Works Performance Act Award Vol. 5, IT, 2017 and Berlinale 72/Forum Expanded, 2022. He has also received the Prix Excellence HES-SO in Switzerland 2016, and has been shortlisted for the Henrike Grohs Art Award 2022.
Abdelkarim’s practice is performance-oriented. He considers performance as a research method and a practice that reflects on performative acts such as narrating, singing, detecting, doing, fictioning, and speculating, which embody various forms across performance, installation, film, sound, paintings, and encounters. His current umbrella project focuses on the agency of the landscape as a witness to “a history we missed and a future we have not yet attended.”
Nadia Kaabi-Linke
Nadia Kaabi-Linke was born in Tunis, Tunisia, in 1978, and raised in Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. She graduated from the University of Fine Arts, Tunis, in 1999, and earned a Ph.D. at Université Paris-Sorbonne, in 2008.
Growing up between Tunis, Kyiv, and Dubai, and now residing in Berlin and Kyiv, Kaabi-Linke has a personal history of migration across cultures and borders that has greatly influenced her work. Her works give physical presence to that which tends to remain invisible, be it people, structures, or the geopolitical forces that shape them.
Using a variety of materials and methods, Kaabi-Linke often works in-situ on projects that relate directly to their exhibition sites. She has rendered visible the bodily traces of people waiting at Berlin bus shelters and subway stations, the scars of domestic violence victims in London, and paint chips scraped from city walls throughout North Africa and Europe. have often served as the impetus for Kaabi-Linke’s endeavours.
Siska was born in Beirut and resides primarily in Berlin. He holds a Master’s degree in Film and Audiovisual Arts from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. A key figure in the early Beiruti graffiti scene, Siska has also produced and performed music as part of the Lebanese Hip Hop group Kitaa Beirut.
A large part of his practice involves archiveology, examining sociopolitical narratives in relation to personal and collective memories. It is common for his work to take the form of extended cinema where he applies cinematic codes as well as film language in order to explore various visual narrative techniques.
At the Haus der Statistics in Berlin in August-2021, he co-curated a series of conversations, films, readings, and live performances as the artistic director of redeem, a platform for ongoing conversations between voices from Beirut in Berlin. Siska has also collaborated on numerous performance and music productions, taking a midway point between his career as a visual artist and musician.
The Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is an academic centre and public venue dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of exhibitions and curatorial knowledge. Founded in 2012 as part of Liverpool John Moores University’s Liverpool School of Art and Design, the ERL is uniquely positioned across academic research and the cultural ecology of Liverpool, underpinned by partnerships with cultural institutions in the city including Tate Liverpool, John Moores Painting Prize, and Liverpool Biennial.
www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk
Images:
Mohamed Abdelkarim Still from Gazing… Unseeing (2021)
Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Walk the Line (2015)
Siska The Last of a Time (2023) Film still
We’re thrilled to welcome several new team members who have recently joined the LAAF family:
Toufik Douib – Creative Producer (International)
Toufik Douib is an Algerian curator and event director who will be developing LAAF’s international programming. His multidisciplinary practice focuses on the question of Maghreb identities through eclectic contemporary lenses, bridging with Diaspora artists and across the eastern and western creative scene.
After completing a Masters in cultural events management, Toufik curated in 2015 his first exhibition ‘Algerianism’. This followed distinct collaborations in the UK (The P21 Gallery, The RichMix or Shubbak Festival) and beyond (Casa Arabe – Spain, Ateliers Sauvages – Algiers, Out of the Circle – Cairo).
Other cultural ventures include artistic research projects, namely with Portsmouth and Aberdeen Universities. He is currently the coordinator of ‘DIGI-MENA’ online mapping research platform, which was supported by the AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) in the category Trainings and Regional Events.
Mo Aziz – Operations Assistant
Mo Aziz (Shabaka) is a Sudanese artist, social activist, and singer-vocalist. Mo graduated from the University of Khartoum where he studied Economics and Social Studies in 2002. He studied Music Production and Film Visual Culture, and MA in Creative Industry at Liverpool Hope University.
Lin Dabbous – British Council ARTIVATOR Fellow in Art Curation
Lin Dabbous is the ARTIVATOR Fellow in Art Curation working on our ‘Port Cities’ visual arts project, in partnership with the British Council. The exhibition will be launching at this year’s festival before touring internationally in the MENA region.
Lin is an architect by training and a current MA candidate in Art History and Curatorial Studies at the American University of Beirut. Her multidisciplinary practice focuses on modern and contemporary Arab art with commitment to challenge and reshape stereotypical narratives surrounding the history of Arab artistic production. In 2023, Lin curated the collective exhibition “Moments of Being,”centered around the memory of Syria, both known and departed, featuring 12 emerging and established Syrian artists.
Her collaborative efforts extend to exhibitions such as “Traces of Utopia” and “The Marine School of Beirut-A Repressed Art History” at AUB Art Galleries. Lin’s contributions are not confined to exhibitions alone; she was also a part of the research team for the exhibition “Partisans of the Nude: An Arab Art Genre in an Era of Contest, 1920-1950” which took place at the Wallach Gallery in Columbia University.
ARTIVATOR is an innovative Art Management Incubator from the British Council focused on enhancing the capabilities of cultural practitioners from the MENA region. This initiative aims to provide comprehensive training, mentoring, and networking opportunities to empower participants with the necessary skills and knowledge for success in the arts industry. ARTIVATOR offers a personalised experience tailored to each participant’s needs, leveraging a network of arts professionals, resources, and support from our esteemed partners.
By supporting emerging arts managers, the incubator strives to foster a vibrant and sustainable arts sector in the MENA region. The goal is to cultivate a new generation of leaders capable of navigating industry challenges while driving growth and innovation.
Venue: VideOdyssey, Toxteth TV, 37-45 Windsor Street, L8 1XE
Date: 6-7pm, Wednesday 6 December 2023
Join us for a conversation and short screenings with Abdelfattah Abusrour, founder of the Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society.
Abdelfattah set up Alrowwad in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem in 1998. The centre uses performance, visual arts, culture and education to support children whose daily reality is oppression and trauma. His inspirational work is based on the concept of ‘Beautiful Resistance’, a form of creative and peaceful self-expression that aims to save lives, empower young people, inspire hope and build peace within individuals.
It pushes young Palestinians to be peace builders in their communities and beyond through creative and non-violent means.
Abdelfattah will be speaking about his work and the importance of creativity in inspiring hope within young people.
In partnership with Bethlehem Cultural Festival.
About Abdelfattah Abusrour
Abdelfattah Abusrour is founder and director of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society, established in 1998 in Aida refugee camp-Bethlehem.
His concept and philosophy of ‘Beautiful Resistance’, using performing and visual arts, culture and education, is a creative and peaceful expression in situations of oppression and trauma to provide possibilities to save lives and inspire hope and build peace within individuals to be peace builders in their communities and beyond.
The Mobile Beautiful Resistance programme has used theatre, dance, photography, filming and a games library. It has toured across the West Bank and Palestine and has trained cultural leads to help connect with other Palestinian communities and marginalised areas.
About Bethlehem Cultural Festival
Bethlehem Cultural Festival is an independent platform for artists and cultural practitioners from Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean.
www.bethlehemculturalfestival.com
For the past 25 years, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) has existed to support and champion creatives from across the Arab region and its diaspora. Art and culture has the power to express our shared humanity and we believe, as a cultural organisation, we have a role in how we exist together.
As we watch in horror amid the ongoing and deeply distressing bombardment of Gaza, LAAF steadily recognises the equal worth of every human life and their indisputable right to protection.
We stand in firm solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and across the region, passionately denouncing the tragic loss of civilian lives and the relentless suffering of individuals, regardless of their location.
LAAF reiterates its enduring commitment to the fundamental principle that all people, irrespective of their origins, should be shielded from collective punishment.
We urgently call for the protection of human rights in Gaza, and a move toward a more sustainable and peaceful resolution, infusing hope and justice into a region that has borne excessive suffering.