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Basma El Husseiny

Domain of Expertise: Cultural entrepreneurship, Cultural policy, Artistic freedom
Nationality: Egypt
UN Working Languages:
English
Basma El Husseiny is a cultural manager, an activist for social change and an expert in cultural governance. For the past 30 years, she has supported independent cultural projects and organizations in the Arab region. In 2004, after acting as Arts Manager of the British Council in Egypt (1988-1998) and the Media, Arts & Culture Programme Officer at the Ford Foundation’s office in the Middle East and North Africa (1999-2003), she founded Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Culture Resource), the first non-governmental regional cultural organization in the Arab region. This organization is responsible for the first Arabic cultural management training programme and the first cultural policy research and development programme in the Arab region, working across music, literature, theatre and plastic and audio-visual arts. In this role, she initiated and co-founded the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the region’s first independent cultural foundation. Basma is currently leading Action for Hope, based in Beirut, which started as a response to the drastic consequences of the conflict in Syria and to “the cultural, social and psychological needs of distressed and displaced communities”. Action for Hope has pioneered cultural relief programs and designed new and alternative models in arts education and artistic production for refugee and marginalized communities.