Selected Projects- Cultural Initiative Programme 2015/16

A programme for the professional enrichment of business owners and cultural institutions in the Negev, to create a social and business network for sharing knowledge and developing work tools.

The program offers a series of meetings, lectures and workshops on marketing and business development, and hosts experts on marketing, public relations, digital media, social media and more.

Business owners and marketing managers from relevant institutions will be invited to participate and learn.In addition to the professional training that they will receive, the meetings will be a platform for creating a social network, creating opportunities and developing professional and personal partnerships. 

CAKE meetings will aim to increase the visibility of the various cultural activities in the Negev region and create opportunities for regional partnerships that can benefit business owners and institutions. 

The project aims to make grey urban settings in the Negev more inviting and visually attractive through community art in various urban spaces, using different art media: sculpture, painting, video, and more.At the heart of the process is  the community’s involvement in the creative process. 
The project includes visually improving residential and public buildings, walls, sidewalks, railings, cables and ropes, decoration of trees and even the roads themselves. The activity will be carried out with the assistance and cooperation of the community, including disadvantaged youth and visitors from out of town.

The project will begin in Be’er-Sheva and will later expand to additional cities and towns throughout the Negev. The project seeks to increase the number of visitors to the city and emphasize connections between neighborhoods and areas of interest. 

The project seeks to create a digital platform that will serve as a kind of toolkit for embroidery artists and offer models for creating art products with new techniques based on rural Palestinian embroidery.

The platform will include a library of products in which each product is sketched and created in a computer file, to be transferred to a machine for production. 

The platform will also include an interface for ordering raw materials and purchasing products online.

The project seeks to create a network of trails around Mitzpe Ramon, making the area accessible to residents, athletes and tourists. The series of trails will include natural shaded areas, water fountains and viewpoints. The route will encompass the historical and artistic story of Mitzpe Ramon, and will invite walkers and runners to an experience that connects them with nature and provides them with a deep understanding of the human and natural tapestry that make Mitzpe Ramon and the surrounding area unique.

The development of the trails will promote tourism in the area and help brand Mitzpe Ramon as a destination for leisure, freedom and outdoor challenges, which enables visitors to enjoy diverse trails that include Mitzpe Ramon, Bedouin settlements, agricultural farms and tourist initiatives.

The Andalus school of Flamenco dancing will focus on children in a number of Arab towns and villages who have not yet been exposed to this art form.
The school will focus on towns lacking after school activities in general, and dance activities in particular.In addition to classical dance studies, we will emphasize the historical importance of movement, and use movement as a therapeutic tool to help children overcome difficulties and obstacles.

The Al Nasr Cinema was built in 1946 by a group of Palestinian residents of Haifa who served in the British army. The cinema closed in 1948 and reopened in 1949 to the Jewish public as the Hadar Cinema. Despite targeting the Jewish community, the cinema became a legend in Haifa, and its main audience was Jewish-Arabs (olim from northern Africa who were settled in Wadi Salib) and the original Palestinian residents of Wadi Nisnas.

During the British mandate, the cinema screened films from the Arab world, but after 1948, as part of the attempt to create a melting pot and to “westernize,” the cinema mainly screened European and American films.  However, this attempt failed, and the cinema went back to showing Arab films. Today the building is owned by real estate developers who want to build an eight-story building in its place, thus erasing the cinema from memory.

The project seeks to reestablish the cinema as a mobile cinema. The goal of the project is to resurrect the cinema with its rich history, and to recount the Arab-Palestinian history. The cinema will be a tool for groundbreaking activity by telling its unique story. In addition to recounting the history, current Palestinian films will be screened, and events and activities will be held.  As part of the struggle against cultural oppression, the mobile cinema disconnects from the need for a physical space, and creates a cultural and social alternative.   

An initiative to develop a unique application for children in Arabic. 
The application will integrate content for children with movement and emotional content, and enable children to consume content any place, any time in an experiential, fun and innovative way, and most importantly will encourage emotional movement and the development of children.

 What is unique about the application is the experiential bodily activity required of the child for its operation, in contrast with the passive sitting that usually characterizes today’s applications for children.

In the alleys of the old city of Be’er-Sheva lies the Shukili studio. The studio, which has been in operation for 5 years, deals with recycled design and provides creative and original solutions for reprocessing or providing a facelift for objects, with an emphasis on social engagement and involving the local community.

The studio offers lectures on recycling, woodworking workshops for women and girls, sustainable design solutions, work at support homes and centres for disadvantaged youth, and more.  

Shukili has a social and environmental agenda, summarized by: “Anything we want to, we can reprocess, and we believe in the power of creative action to carry out real social and individual change”.

The Shukili project seeks to gradually expand and become a centre for design that also serves to host tourists, and to expand the model of activity and community involvement.