Art and Culture

The town of Erfoud in the middle of a palm grove in Morocco’s eastern desert watches over a rare treasure – petrified skeletons of prehistoric creatures. The oasis town, home to around 30,000 people, has been called by archaeologists and geologists as “the largest open air fossil museum in the world”. According to locals, the town was under the sea …

The Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art – a $300 million complex – is the first North American museum dedicated to Islamic Art, and is an initiative of the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Muslims. The complex aims to foster knowledge and understanding between Muslims and Islamic societies and other cultures. Occupying 6.8 hectares, the complex, with its open-air …

New York’s renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art has purchased a collection of Egyptian artifacts, discovered a century ago by famed British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie and deemed to be over 4,000 years old, thereby averting a much-criticized plan to auction off the artifacts. The Treasure of Harageh consists of 37 items including flasks, jewelry inlaid with rare minerals …

Indonesia has pledged to protect ancient cave paintings which researchers say could prove that Europe was not the birthplace of art. Indonesian authorities plan to place the caves, located on the central island Sulawesi, on a list of Indonesia’s official “cultural heritage” and are applying to get them included on the UNESCO World heritage list. “This is certainly something that …

C.A. Pinkham – Kitchenette Pittsburgh, PA’s Conflict Kitchen restaurant has come under fire by some members of the city’s Jewish community who are upset that the restaurant has chosen to feature Palestinian food. Those people are assholes. For those of you not familiar with Conflict Kitchen, it’s a restaurant whose cuisine changes regularly on a three-to-five month rotation, but always …

“Hi, I’m Ala from Bethlehem. I do upcycling.” A friendly man in his early thirties, the curly hair bound to a plait, greets the camera. It is the first scene of the Indiegogo-Crowdfunding video Ala Hilu created to start his project: a workshop dedicated to upcycling in the Bethlehem area. For this he needs space and tools. Why upcycling? “Trash …

Lebanon-born British Human Rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin married American actor George Clooney in Venice on Saturday in a high-profile wedding ceremony, before spending the night partying with the actor’s A-list friends. “George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin were married today (September 27) in a private ceremony in Venice, Italy”, Stan Rosenfield, a spokesman for Clooney, said. The announcement was a surprise …

The Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art will open in Toronto on Friday – the $300 million complex will be the first North American museum dedicated to Islamic Art, and is an initiative of the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Muslims. The complex aims to foster knowledge and understanding between Muslims and Islamic societies and other cultures. Occupying 6.8 …

The winners of the 2014 Arab American Book Awards were revealed by the Arab American National Museum on Tuesday, with several books written about Arab American culture published in 2013 in contention. Among the winners were “The Corpse Washer” by Sinan Antoon for the Fiction Award, “We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War” by Nadje Al-Ali …

Well-known Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim, known all over the Arab world for his nationalist writing, passed away on Tuesday after his battle with cancer. 75-year-old Qasim died in the Safed hospital in northern Israel, Issam Khuri, a family friend said, after suffering from liver cancer for the past three years. Qasim was best known for nationalist poetry in which he …