Who We Are

Founded in 2000 at Alexandria, Egypt

Since then, ElMadina Arts supported dissemination of innovative experiences in Arts and Culture fields, including the support of digital transformation in the mentioned fields.

ElMadina Arts designs high-quality projects and programs in production, training and business models, as well as research, resources and tools. ElMadina seeks to empower women, youth, artists and professional actors to develop in the artistic and cultural sectors, especially those linked to social and public space issues.

ElMadina Arts operates in a spirit of cooperation, communication and networking, extending to Africa, the Mediterranean region and America. ElMadina is interested in engaging communities, especially the disadvantaged areas, to contribute to a vibrant system of pluralism, diversity and freedom of expression.

ElMadina Arts Strategy

We developed a strategy commensurate with our explanation of the general situation,
which includes the pandemic conditions and the political and economical conditions in the region. This strategy aims to:

Leadership Development

Disseminating exciting and innovative creative experiences to develop leadership in independent artistic and cultural field.

Digital Transformation

Supporting and developing digital transformation and the knowledge economy on the Internet in the free artistic and cultural sector, especially the performing arts.

Public Spaces

Develop previous state strategies to promote the right to culture and free expression in public spaces and marginalized areas, such as (SAWP) and (Carnival Theater).

We seeks to enable Women, Youth, Artists and Cultural Activists to develop in the artistic and cultural sectors. It focuses on the link with social issues and the problems of public space, and consolidating the concepts of the right of culture and effective citizenship.

ELMADINA, WHY ?

“ElMadina” in Arabic Language means “The City”, and the name is inspired by Cavafy’s poem “The City”. Constantine Peter Cavafy was a Greek poet, journalist and civil servant from Alexandria. Cavafy was born in 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents who originated from the Greek community of Constantinople (Istanbul), and was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1885, he returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Watch "The City" Short Film on YouTube

"The City" is a short film by Barry Lowe and Dino Mahoney about the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), famous for great modernist poems such as, 'The City.' Idiosyncratically shot in Hong Kong, as well as Cavafy's native city of Alexandria, Egypt, the film gives a flavor of Cavafy's poetry through readings, rare interviews with Alexandrians who knew him, and poets who admire his work.

STORY AND MILESTONES

By the end of the 1990s there were no independent artists in Alexandria, and the means of production were restricted under the control of government agencies. The term “entrepreneurship” was non-existent, there was not even one experience that was considered to be a copyrightable model, and so ElMadina Arts was founded in 2000. ElMadina considers art to be an interactive formula between different fields of arts, and seeks to transform intercultural dialogue into concrete activity – to try to discover new spaces in artwork – to create a method of work that develops the artist socially and technically. This required much research and development and resources shared by all.

ElMadina is working to provide infrastructure for the development of the art market, both in performing arts and digital arts, in connection with the social and public space issues. Therefore, it has directed various projects and programs, taking into consideration the regional cooperation with international, regional and local partners. This association is interested in networking and supporting ElMadina’s artistic and cultural community.

After January 2011, the revolution began on the streets; The masses were practicing freedom together and creating new techniques of expression in peaceful ways. It was essential for the street to be researched and discovered again by artists, and for a future vision of art on the street and its continuity as an authentic art space. The attempt to spread art among non – expert groups and make it available to ordinary people to practice it as part of their lives. ElMadina also produced various performances and provided a lot of working methods and resources in the social theater.

Since 2000, ElMadina Arts has contributed to the independent theatre movement and has developed more normal and acceptable conditions for it, particularly in Alexandria. Taking into consideration the development of work in the performing arts sector, ElMadina created (Studio ElMadina) as a model for managing artists’ spaces. It is the first unique space of its kind for production and training in all fields of arts, enabling a large number of young artists to develop their work and train in managing similar places and creating other places. Moreover, ElMadina participated and organized sessions from the Independent Theatre Festival in Alexandria in collaboration with the Hanager Centre in Cairo. In recent years, ElMadina has produced theater productions belonging to the independent theater movement, and multilingual theater performances. In addition to exhibitions which are research and space-processing based.

Meet the team

Ahmed Saleh

Founder and Executive Director

Maher Sherif

Co-Founder and Researcher

Heba Radwan

Co-Founder and Researcher

Shehab Ismail

Creative Director

Wafaa Ouassim

Social Media Manager

Thank you

Over the past years, we were so lucky that life gave us such great innovative and dedicated people to be part of the family and part of the crew. But as part of the life itself, life takes us to explore new and different adventures along the way. That is why we would love to take the time to thank our family and former crew of ElMadina Arts along the past years for the extraordinary job they did for us. You have helped us creat our dream, and achieve our goals without any hesitations. You have been an integral part of ElMadina, and you did a wonderful job which made all the difference. So, we would love to thank you for playing such an important role. We are so grateful for your great contribution to ElMadina Arts. Although, we are sad that life took us in different paths, but with deep appreciation for your efforts, we sincerely wish you all the luck and success in your personal and career life