Tuna el-Gabal
Mallawy
Egypt
- Arts
- Democracy and community development
- Environment/Sustainable development
- Heritage
- Research
- Youth and education
It consists of a place for visitors and a cultural space designed to hold academic and artistic activities for the benefit of the local community and international visitors. With 16 guest lodges that have the capacity for 52 visitors, it is an open environment for local cultural groups, cultural tourists, artists, writers and other retreat groups. This creative medium is open to ideas and activities drawn from a wide range of sectors covering creative writing, visual and performing arts. It carries the ethos of engaging with the local heritage and art, both tangible and intangible to generate new ideas and experiences.
New Hermopolis serves the main city of Mallawi and its surrounding villages (approx.one million inhabitants). The nearest villages are Tuna El –Gebel (3KM) and Ashmunin (8KM). For decades, this region has experienced neglect and marginalization. Despite its wealth of culture, the land that was once a great centre for learning and cultural dialogue has become impoverished and overlooked. Middle Egypt exhibits some of the highest levels of poverty and marginalization in the country. Economic opportunities are scarce but opportunities for free self-expression are even scarcer. Partisanship and intolerance of alternate belief systems has risen, particularly along the Christian-Muslim juxtaposition, higher in this region than many other areas of Egypt.
New Hermopolis employs a hybrid social-business model that raises revenue from business activities to invest in social change programs within our local communities. Our tour packages include guided itineraries to the different heritage sites of this region with unique opportunities for cross-cultural sharing, learning, and project collaboration. Residencies for cultural/heritage researchers, artists, writers, musicians, and scholars in related fields are on offer. We encourage our visitors, when possible, to deepen their engagement with our local communities and exchange work, concepts, ideas and training opportunities with the local youth. The aim is to foster practice of self-expression, critical thought, and creativity. This is normally delivered in the form of free workshops and trainings that teach through hands-on activities various art forms. These could include performance art such as music and theatre, poetry and creative writing, paint, sculpture, and photography. This milieu is meant to widen the scope of engagement to take on board audiences that traditionally would not have considered themselves as art audiences. In this way we hope to succeed in removing the boundary between audience/ participants encouraging all forms of creative expression from story-telling, improvisation and interactive theatre.
Within this remit we have adopted an unusual outreach programme encouraging the creation of a number of cultural bodies in nearby villages where New Hermopolis acts a collective focus, a hub and incubator to give guidance, support and insure their continued growth.
Various avenues are available for youth to demonstrate and showcase their work to local communities. There are also plans in the future to develop a roaming cultural festival through the local villages. Competitions featuring poetry, essays, design, and music are also planned to be held periodically, teaching youth that art production can yield reward and help us in identifying truly talented local artists. By offering these public outlets for voicing of opinions, we hope to encourage discussion of belief, tolerance and instil a sense of pride and ownership of one’s own heritage.