Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Dec. 2001 - 2 Jan. 2002 Issue No.566
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

The nation's home
NEXT month Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni will preside over the opening of the Bait Al-Umma (House of the Nation) Museum, the latest museum the Plastic Arts Department has to offer to the public. The residence of the statesman Saad Zaghloul, Bait Al-Umma was so called in Zaghloul's lifetime -- an allusion to the fact that those involved in the struggle for national independence, whether or not they belonged to Zaghloul's Wafd Party, often held meetings there. Of Zaghloul's belongings that have been preserved, the new museum brings together, among other things, 13 oil paintings, 75 photographs, 369 objet d'art and four busts of the statesman. "After its opening," Ahmed Nawwar, the head of the Plastic Arts Department announced, "the museum will turn into a cultural centre and symposia will be held on relevant issues in art, politics and culture."
Academic festivities

ON MONDAY Cairo University orchestrated a large-scale celebration on the occasion of the second "Science Day," presided over by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Minister of Higher Education Moufid Shehab and Naguib El-Hilali Gohar, president of the university. According to Shehab, the purpose of the celebration is to acknowledge the achievement of those honoured and present the population of the university with role models and successful careers to emulate. The celebration opened with an inaugural speech in honour of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, "Modernising Egytian society in Naguib Mahfouz's thought," by the writer Mohamed Salmawy. The names of those honoured included Naguib Mahfouz, Ibrahim Nafie, Mahmoud Abul-Leil, Ahmed Fathi Surour, Youssef Wali, Atef Sedqi, Amal Osman, Saad Nassar, Maher Abaza, Soad Al-Sobah, Hassan Hamed, Soliman Metwalli, Mohamed Shafie El- Zawahri, Mohamed Abdel-Fattah El-Qassas and Sultan Al-Qasimi.
Ourselves and others

ON SATURDAY the governor of Alexandria Mohamed Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub opened the intellectual and cultural conference of the National Association Salon, held in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture at the Palace of Art Appreciation in Sidi Gaber. The main symposium of the conference, entitled "Egypt and the world: the repercussions of a century past, the challenges of one present," will engage academics, journalists and writers as well as members of the National Assembly and the Shuhra Council.
Yes Minister

MEDIA Production City's first film production for 2001 will bring film star Ahmed Zaki back to the screen for the first time since Mohamed Khan's Ayyam El-Sadat. Written by Wahid Hamed, Maali Al-Wazir (His Excellency the Minister) will also feature Yousra, but the name of the director has yet to be announced. Filming is to commence on 15 January, Mamdouh El- Leithi, head of the Film Department at the City, announced last week.
Missing in action

ON WEDNESDAY and Thursday, respectively, a reception and a concert were held to celebrate the achievement of the Saudi poet Prince Abdallah Al-Faisal. In the first event, inaugurated by the Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel, both Al- Faisal and the writer and literary patroness, Soad Al-Sobah, whose publishing house Dar Al- Sobah organised the celebration, were absent due to illness. Attending on their behalf were their sons, Mohamed Abdallah Al-Faisal and Sheikh Mubarak Al-Abdallah Al-Sobah. The second event, held in the main hall of the Opera House and attended by its director Samir Farag along with comedian Abdel-Moneim Madbouli and Mohamed Abdallah Al-Faisal, saw conductor Salah Ghobashi's Abdel-Halim Noweira Ensemble performing those of Al-Faisal's poems that have been set to music, the most famous being "Thawrat Al-Shakk" (The revolt of doubt), a song popularised by Umm-Kulthoum.
Death of a writer

THE DEATH of the well-known writer and journalist Gazibeya Sedqi, at the age of 81, on Sunday, marked the end of a remarkable career in literature. Sedqi produced some 43 books ranging in genre from fiction to travel writing to translation; many of her stories have been turned into radio shows and films.
Future scholars

LAST week the Egyptian Media Production City Company concluded a plan to establish an Academy of Media Production, to be located within the City and to commence its activities next year. The project provides for four disciplines, each of which is to have a department of the Academy devoted to it: television production, film production, advertising and multimedia production. "The idea behind the academy," Abdel-Rahman Hafez, chairman of the Company, declared, "has met with support from all parties concerned, especially since the project is expected to be a great success... The Media Production City is the model landscape for any such academy, since all the resources needed for practical study -- studios, artistic and production centres, dramatic props etc. -- will be within walking distance."
Children in action

LAST week the Arab Council for Childhood and Development decided to begin implementing its Project for the Development of Child Culture -- an idea that will adopt as its model Mrs Suzzane Mubarak's Reading for All programme, according to Hamad Al-Aqla, the head of the council. The first step, Al-Aqla announced, will be to establish a number of cultural centres geared towards the needs of children aged between six and 14. In the next five years, for which funding has been procured from the Arab Gulf Programme for Supporting UN Development Agencies, headed by the Saudi Prince Talal Ibn Abdel-Aziz, the project will target three Arab countries every year.
"The project aims to emphasise Arab cultural identity," Al-Aqla added, "while respecting regional diversity and interacting with the cultures of the rest of the world."
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

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