A former gentlemen-only arts club in central London will open later this month as a space dedicated to art, culture, and ideas from the Global Majority.
Ibraaz, which will be free to visit, will feature exhibitions, talks, screenings, music and artist residencies. It includes exhibition spaces, library, cafe and bookshop and will open to the public on 15 October.
The venue has been developed by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, a Geneva-based non-profit with links to the Middle East and North Africa. Ibraaz was founded by Lina Lazaar, who is the vice president of the foundation. Her father, the Tunisian-Swiss investment banker and philanthropist Kamel Lazaar, created the foundation.
“We started this initiative back in 2010 as an online publishing platform,” said Lina Lazaar. “It was literally the day after the Arab Spring, and it very quickly became very urgent and gathered hundreds of contributions from artists, writers, intellectuals and institutions globally.
“And before we knew it, a community had emerged. And so our mission is to allow this place to become a vessel of discovery, a place where ideas and communities from far and wide can meet."
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Ibraaz, which means shine a light on in Arabic, is housed in a Grade II-listed building that covers six floors and has had a number of previous functions. As well as gentlemen-only arts club, it has also been a hospital and a synagogue.
The building was redeveloped by architect-in-residence Sumayya Vally with support from James Bell of MSMR Architects. The idea is that the building and its programme will grow and adapt over time.
Ibraaz opens with Parliament of Ghosts (15 October–15 February 2026), a site specific work by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. This repurposes colonial-era furniture and jute sacks alongside newly crafted elements, and is designed to reflect on memory, restitution, and the poetics of reuse.
The inaugural library-in-residence is led by the Otolith Group, which was founded by artists and filmmakers Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun. The group has gathered books, journals, records, films, maps, recipes and catalogues related to Pan-African and Pan-Asian ideas.
At the press view for the venue, Hammad Nasar, Ibraaz’s director of programmes and content, reflected on the recent far-right march through central London.
“Two weeks ago, just around the corner from this street, we had a quite an ugly March going past, reminding us as to what happens when difference is weaponised,” Nasar said. “What we are hoping to do, aspiring to do, is to remind us all that difference is what makes us special, difference is to be valued. It expands the imagination, and this is what we need. We need multiple acts of imagination, for which we turn to art, film and music.”
The bookshop at Ibraaz is being curated by the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) and is operated by Burley Fisher Books.