Over 40 art and culture practitioners, institutions, collectives, alliances, and youth-led initiatives attended the first regional networking event for the “Ecosystems Academy” component of the All-Around Culture Programme.
According to a release from the programme, MitOst at Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation for Arts & Culture (MMAG) Foundation in Amman implemented the first edition of “Ecosystems Academy,” which was co-funded by the EU.
The Ecosystem Academy facilitates peer-to-peer learning methodologies to increase cultural ecosystem awareness by mapping and reflecting on the diversity of actors working in arts, culture, and civil society in the MENA region, their roles and interconnections, and how this contributes to the resilience of their sectors.
The Ecosystem Academy brought together grantees from the “Youth-Led Cultural & Civic Initiatives” and “Cultural Alliances” components, as well as enablers and facilitators, from Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, and Libya.
Aseel Issa, from Jordan’s MedeArts Network (one of the beneficiaries of the “Cultural Alliances” component), expressed her delight at being a part of the Ecosystem Academy, noting that the challenges faced by organisations working in the cultural sector in different countries were strikingly similar.
According to the statement, the All-Around Culture Programme aims to foster a vital cultural ecosystem as an enabling environment for young people’s social and economic inclusion in seven Arab countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and the Libyan and Syrian communities in these countries.