The Beirut Workshop on Art and Citizenship was held on December 16, 2021, from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm at the Bossa Nova Hotel in Sin-el-Fil (Lebanon) with an overall participation of 15 speakers (of whom 2 online), and 6 additional participants on Zoom. 

The workshop was organized by Dar al-Kalima University (Bethlehem – Palestine) and Dar al-Kalima Non-Governmental Organization for Arts and Culture/Nabad program (nabad.art) in Lebanon. It was one of three workshops (Beirut, Amman, Gaza) that accompanied the 23rd Dar al-Kalima International Conference on Art and Citizenship in Bethlehem which took place on December 15-16, 2021.

Several issues were addressed by academics, artists, activists,  creative enterprises founders, and art organizations presidents: how can the art and citizenship relation be defined and practiced? How can local and diaspora artistic initiatives and interventions have a greater impact given the current challenges – economic crisis, political unrest, migration, and social injustice? What are the needs of individuals, groups, and associations who are reinventing traditional notions of artistic creation and who contribute to the development of their society through the transformative power of their artistic capacities or through proactive social engagement? And what are the ways to move forward and contribute to building inclusive/active citizenship in Lebanon and Southwestern Asia? 

The workshop was divided into 4 main sessions which followed an introductory session. All sessions had a hybrid format, with on-site and online participants and attendees. The fourth session/webinar had a storytelling format/”tour de table”, and was available online for the Dar al-Kalima conference’s audience in Bethlehem.