Artist, educator and activist Bahia Shehab discusses the role of artists during times of political change, and reflects on what it meant to take part in the Arab Spring. Shehab discusses her newly-published book ‘You Can Crush The Flowers: A Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution,’ and her work to help develop a new generation of creative minds through arts education.

Ratish Nanda, CEO of Aga Khan Trust for Culture India, tells us about his work at the organisation and how they worked on the transformation of neighborhoods and communities based on their needs. Nanda along his team has been able to revive and reinvigorate public spaces in India, creating new places for recreation, in particular gardens--giving people a new perspective on their environment.

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

Episode 7. Contextualising the Occult - Liana Saif and Juan de Lara

Liana Saif explores how divination, talismans, amulets and ritual have helped people address social anxieties and cultural challenges throughout history.

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

Professor of Arabian and Middle Eastern Archaeology at UCL, Robert Carter, tells us about the importance of pearl trade in the Gulf and India, and with over 7,000 years of history defining and shaping the global economy. 

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

Jaimee Comstock-Skipp,  PhD candidate affiliated with Leiden University, takes us on a magic journey to learn more about the mythical spine of Iran: Firdausī’s Shāhnāma epic.

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

George Manginis, Academic Director at the Benaki Museum in Athens, sheds light on the importance of the Monastery of St. Catherine in Mount Sinai, Egypt—the bridge between Asia and Africa.  George will reveal, how unlike popular belief, the monastery has been an important place of pilgrimage for three Abrahamic religions alike: Christendom, Islam and Judaism

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

Nancy Um, professor of Art History at Binghamton University, takes us on a journey to discover the stories and myths associated to one of the largest commodities of modern world, coffee.

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.

Salma Tuqan, Deputy Director of Delfina Foundation and former Contemporary Middle East Curator at the V&A, gives us a better insight of the thriving and resilient cultural scene experienced in the Levant countries of the Mediterranean, in particular Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. Through her sounded expertise, Salma explains the several ways in which the region has faced the challenge of crisis, from war to more current issues like the explosion of the harbour of Beirut.

This podcast is part of Asia House Arts in Isolation Series and Converging Paths, an initiative organised in partnership with the Barakat Trust that promotes the arts and cultures of the Islamic World.