Culture in the Civic Space
About the Learning Journey
Across the MENA region, many arts and culture organizations operating in civic space face a persistent state of precarity. Political repression, shrinking civic space, and financial uncertainty are not temporary setbacks — they are daily realities that organizations must continually navigate.
Support for the civic sector in the region has existed for decades, often shaped by external priorities. While this support has opened up important possibilities, it has not always led to the kind of resilient, self-sustaining structures that many organizations envision for themselves.
It is long overdue to change perspective and support a transition towards a more resilient and positive future. It calls for a shift – from short-term solutions to long-term care, from isolated efforts to connected ones.
This program starts from that understanding. It brings together twelve arts and culture organizations from across the region, all working within the civic space, to explore what it means to play a field-supporting role: to build relationships, create spaces for others, and strengthen the shared conditions and practices that help the wider field.
Through in-person gatherings, peer learning, and experimentation, the program creates space for organizations to reflect, connect, and test new approaches to supporting the field.
Imagination is at the heart of this journey – a capacity deeply rooted in the field of arts and culture, and one that offers a powerful lens for reimagining how support, solidarity, and sustainability can take shape across the field and open up new possibilities for the future of civic space in the region.
"We gnawed on stones to open a space for jasmine"
- Mahmoud Darwish, 1999 -
These words carry something of the spirit that guides this program – they speak to the realities of scarcity and struggle, but also to persistence, and the quiet possibility of something beautiful. In a world of stones, what does it mean to open space for jasmine?
For many arts and culture organizations in the region, this struggle is far from metaphorical – it means working through repression, exhaustion, and fractured support systems, often with little or no room to breathe.
This program is an effort to do something differently. To open space – however small – where organizations can come together to share, reflect, and test what could be. In the midst of constraint, we ask: what becomes possible when we are allowed to imagine together? What new roles or forms of support could grow, if given the room? What possibilities might bloom – like jasmine pushing its way through stone?
What is Field Support?
In every sector – including arts and culture – there are individuals, collectives, and organizations whose work is not just about creating or producing. It is about connecting, listening, and creating the conditions for others to grow, collaborate, and adapt.
Field supporters often work quietly and relationally. They tune into what is emerging, respond to gaps, open access to knowledge or resources, and hold spaces for reflection, care, and imagination. Their roles may not always be visible or named – but they are crucial to the strength and sustainability of the wider field.
This kind of work is sometimes referred to as field support, field catalysation, or ecosystem building. The terminology may vary, but they all point toward a shared intention: to strengthen the field as a whole – especially in contexts where civic space is shrinking and the cultural field is under pressure.
This program supports this work by creating spaces where field supporters can reflect on their roles, test new ideas, and reimagine relationships and practices. This happens through in-person meetings, peer learning, small-scale experimentations, and collective sense-making – always grounded in the realities of the region. The aim is not to define one way of doing field support, but to recognise its many forms, learn from each other, build shared capacity, and amplify its impact.
Each of the twelve organizations in this program brings their own way of practicing field support – rooted in their contexts and shaped by the needs around them. From experimenting with decentralized support structures to navigating emotional fatigue, from creating mobile hubs to rethinking trust – their work reflects the complexity, courage, care and commitment it takes to support to support the wider field.
