For many people, creating art is an essential part of their existence.
Most of us cannot define art and yet we know it when we see, hear or experience it.
Manifestations of art as an infinite arrangement of form, sound and words may touch us profoundly and evoke a myriad reaction.
Sometimes, it hits us directly, and other times, there is more than what meets the eye.
For many people, creating art is an essential part of their existence. Others may shrug it
off as if it does not matter.
But really, what would our lives be without arts? What is a society without culture?
Most of us cannot define art and yet we know it when we see, hear or experience it.
Is the Arab region with all its potential reduced to crises, violence, war, extremism and
repression, or can it positively re-invent itself in all its diversity?
Can we expand the space where art can stimulate and provoke the vibrant symphony of our daily lives but also
offer clues for deciphering what is in utter dissonance?
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC - through works of artists and cultural initiatives is about conveying
new geographies of the mind and imagination.
It is with an accumulation of freely expressed ideas and emotions orbiting our lives, that we are able to
narrate, dream, create, inspire and reconfigure what seem to be fragmented stories and societies and to make
sense of complex realities, including physical and emotional displacement.
Art matters after all. And its impact is palatable on many levels.
Fifty stories are at your fingertips; fifty initiatives out of the one hundred and fifty artistic and cultural
initiatives that AFAC supports annually with the generous contributions of individuals from the Arab region
and beyond.
These narratives illustrate what pre-occupies and nurtures individuals and communities across the region.
We are called on to sense the urgency of issues and how they are tackled through different mediums - documentary
photography, film, music, performing and visual arts, writing, research and regional collaborations.
Art matters after all. And its impact is palatable on many levels - the artist, the
community, and wider society.
