LONDON: Aser El-Saqqa, the Palestinian founder of London’s AWAN (Arab Women Artists Now) festival, is a passionate advocate for pan-Arab artists and creatives. While the festival’s latest edition ran for just eight days before being cut short by the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown, El-Saqqa has already set up workshops online and is seeking funding to keep the creative connections alive.
El-Saqqa told Arab News that the main motivation for the festival is to create a platform for female Arab artists to perform on an equal footing. “At AWAN you see up-and-coming talent taking inspiration from mid-career and established performers,” he said.
The Arab Spring of 2011 saw many artists in the Arab world join those displaced by political upheaval, El-Saqqa noted. “I saw the number of emerging artists was growing. The artistic community in London is part of the fabric of the city, so it is important that we manage to develop and sustain this kind of project,” he said.
El-Saqqa told Arab News that the main motivation for the festival is to create a platform for female Arab artists to perform on an equal footing. (Supplied)
El-Saqqa had already founded Arts Canteen — which curates and produces events, exhibitions and festivals that support artists from the Arab world and surrounding regions — in 2010.
From 1994 to 1998 he had worked for the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and, upon arriving in the UK, he worked for a few months at the Palestinian Delegation in London as a cultural officer. But a lack of resources led him to seek work in The City — as London’s financial district is known. He spent nine years working in credit export insurance — a serious departure from his true passion, but perhaps useful background for the fundraising to which he now dedicates much of his time.
The festival’s latest edition ran for just eight days before being cut short by the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown. (Supplied)
2011 saw the first Shubbak Festival, a pan-Arab festival founded by the Mayor of London’s Office. At that time, El-Saqqa was curating an exhibition in the English capital’s Arab British Centre and was asked to extend the dates to participate in Shubbak.
Today one of El-Saqqa’s main goals is to convince multiple agencies to work together to optimize support for artists.
“We need to establish a network of young artists through established art foundations and cultural agencies around the world,” he said.
