The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit is a sleek, modern addition to the troubled landscape of the occupied West Bank. It prides itself on being the first green building in Palestine. The museum has been designed by the Irish-American firm Heneghan Peng, which recently completed a project to redevelop the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.
Jerusalem Lives is the museum’s opening curatorial project and is split into four sections, asking questions such as “What are the stories of collective resistance?” and “How do we make Jerusalem live?”
The museum’s mandate to reach as many Palestinians worldwide as possible is led by the venue’s director, Mahmoud Hawari. With a career path that includes the Middle East department of the Islamic collections at the British Museum in London, Hawari was the lead curator of the planned Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, before he moved to the Palestinian venue in 2016.
With its remit of archaeology, ethnography and art, the Birzeit museum operates as a cultural centre and runs a public programme of lectures, symposia, film, music and theatre. A planned second phase of construction will provide more gallery and storage space.
Where did the concept for the museum originate?
Mahmoud Hawari: The museum had been planned through the Taawon Welfare Association – a charity concerned with Palestinian development and education – since the late 1990s. Although the second intifada (a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip) delayed progress, donations from individual Palestinians encouraged the creation of a strategic plan in 2010. To discuss the museum’s future, an ad hoc committee – that included me – of historians, archaeologists, filmmakers, anthropologists and sponsors gathered in London. By 2013, construction had begun on 40,000 sq metres leased from nearby Birzeit University. The museum building was inaugurated last year.
Has there been any controversy around the museum?
Palestinians have questioned why $24m [£18.3m] was invested in it instead of being divided among various Palestinian cultural institutions and organisations. The answer is that the welfare association wanted to provide a museum looking at Palestine’s history, society and vibrant culture. This was also the wish of many of the sponsors – 95% of whom are Palestinian, both from here and the diaspora. None of the other cultural institutions in Palestine embodied that mission.
Do you have a permanent collection?
Palestinian institutions have a long way to go in building their collections. So much has been taken from us over the years. But we have a strict acquisitions policy. We don’t want to end up as just a repository of old things; the collections should reflect our programmes. As we don’t have ready-made funding and we aren’t going to the art market, we mainly receive donations or works on loan from private collections. We were happy to receive a unique collection of more than 500 Palestinian posters, artworks and documentary films recently.
Who is your audience?
Palestinians in the West Bank as well as those living abroad. We know that not all Palestinians will be able to visit. The people of Gaza won’t be able to come. Even those in the West Bank, as far as Hebron and Jenin, won’t be able to visit because of travel restrictions. And neither do we anticipate Israelis coming here. Under the current repressive measures, both sides are in a state of polarisation. However, we can reach out by virtual activity online or through electronic platforms and enthuse people to communicate with us.
What role will digitisation play in the museum’s future?
Over the next 10 years we will be digitising the most endangered Palestinian archives and making them accessible to locals and researchers all around the world. We also aim to launch an interactive archival project about modern Palestinian history, where you will be able to find out about politics, history, poetry, cinema, music and literature.
What are the museum’s future plans?
We have at least three exhibitions scheduled, with two main shows per year. At The Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery runs from February to September 2018, and is about Palestinian embroidery within a political context.
The show will explore embroidery beyond 1948 and its role in nationalism, resistance and the practise of Palestinian identity. It was also our first “satellite exhibition” last summer in Beirut, Lebanon, and was hosted by the museum Dar El-Nimer For Arts and Culture to coincide with the inauguration of this building.
The touring show includes items from the collections of Widad Kawar, a renowned collector of Jordanian and Palestinian ethnic and cultural arts, and the collector Malak al-Husseini Abdulrahim. It is important for us to create a Palestinian version of the exhibition at the museum, curated using new research and new objects.
www.palmuseum.org
Rebecca Swirsky is a freelance writer
Architect Heneghan Peng Architects
Landscape architect Lara Zureikat
Engineer Arup
Lighting Bartenbach Lichlabor
Facade T/E/S/S
QS Davis Langdon/AECOM
Consultant Arabtech Jardaneh
Exhibition design Jasmin Oezcebi
Exhibitions Jerusalem Lives, until 31 January 2018
Admission Free
Jerusalem Lives is the museum’s opening curatorial project and is split into four sections, asking questions such as “What are the stories of collective resistance?” and “How do we make Jerusalem live?”
The museum’s mandate to reach as many Palestinians worldwide as possible is led by the venue’s director, Mahmoud Hawari. With a career path that includes the Middle East department of the Islamic collections at the British Museum in London, Hawari was the lead curator of the planned Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, before he moved to the Palestinian venue in 2016.
With its remit of archaeology, ethnography and art, the Birzeit museum operates as a cultural centre and runs a public programme of lectures, symposia, film, music and theatre. A planned second phase of construction will provide more gallery and storage space.
Where did the concept for the museum originate?
Mahmoud Hawari: The museum had been planned through the Taawon Welfare Association – a charity concerned with Palestinian development and education – since the late 1990s. Although the second intifada (a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip) delayed progress, donations from individual Palestinians encouraged the creation of a strategic plan in 2010. To discuss the museum’s future, an ad hoc committee – that included me – of historians, archaeologists, filmmakers, anthropologists and sponsors gathered in London. By 2013, construction had begun on 40,000 sq metres leased from nearby Birzeit University. The museum building was inaugurated last year.
Has there been any controversy around the museum?
Palestinians have questioned why $24m [£18.3m] was invested in it instead of being divided among various Palestinian cultural institutions and organisations. The answer is that the welfare association wanted to provide a museum looking at Palestine’s history, society and vibrant culture. This was also the wish of many of the sponsors – 95% of whom are Palestinian, both from here and the diaspora. None of the other cultural institutions in Palestine embodied that mission.
Do you have a permanent collection?
Palestinian institutions have a long way to go in building their collections. So much has been taken from us over the years. But we have a strict acquisitions policy. We don’t want to end up as just a repository of old things; the collections should reflect our programmes. As we don’t have ready-made funding and we aren’t going to the art market, we mainly receive donations or works on loan from private collections. We were happy to receive a unique collection of more than 500 Palestinian posters, artworks and documentary films recently.
Who is your audience?
Palestinians in the West Bank as well as those living abroad. We know that not all Palestinians will be able to visit. The people of Gaza won’t be able to come. Even those in the West Bank, as far as Hebron and Jenin, won’t be able to visit because of travel restrictions. And neither do we anticipate Israelis coming here. Under the current repressive measures, both sides are in a state of polarisation. However, we can reach out by virtual activity online or through electronic platforms and enthuse people to communicate with us.
What role will digitisation play in the museum’s future?
Over the next 10 years we will be digitising the most endangered Palestinian archives and making them accessible to locals and researchers all around the world. We also aim to launch an interactive archival project about modern Palestinian history, where you will be able to find out about politics, history, poetry, cinema, music and literature.
What are the museum’s future plans?
We have at least three exhibitions scheduled, with two main shows per year. At The Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery runs from February to September 2018, and is about Palestinian embroidery within a political context.
The show will explore embroidery beyond 1948 and its role in nationalism, resistance and the practise of Palestinian identity. It was also our first “satellite exhibition” last summer in Beirut, Lebanon, and was hosted by the museum Dar El-Nimer For Arts and Culture to coincide with the inauguration of this building.
The touring show includes items from the collections of Widad Kawar, a renowned collector of Jordanian and Palestinian ethnic and cultural arts, and the collector Malak al-Husseini Abdulrahim. It is important for us to create a Palestinian version of the exhibition at the museum, curated using new research and new objects.
www.palmuseum.org
Rebecca Swirsky is a freelance writer
Project data
Cost $24m (£18.3m)Architect Heneghan Peng Architects
Landscape architect Lara Zureikat
Engineer Arup
Lighting Bartenbach Lichlabor
Facade T/E/S/S
QS Davis Langdon/AECOM
Consultant Arabtech Jardaneh
Exhibition design Jasmin Oezcebi
Exhibitions Jerusalem Lives, until 31 January 2018
Admission Free