INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF ART PALESTINE

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The Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA) has been a formally registered NGO in Palestine since June 2004. It aims to contemporize the field of Palestinian visual culture and arts, primarily by developing opportunities for arts education in Palestine. Its three intertwined goals are: providing outlets for contemporary arts education; networking; and, research in art. It therefore supports a group of innovative, educational, artistic and creative intellectual activities that strive to create a link between the local and international art scenes, thereby expanding the potential of arts and research in Palestine.

The founding Board of Directors is comprised of individuals who have set precedents in cultural and artistic activism, including: Chairperson, Mazen Qupty, one of the most prominent Palestinian art collectors; Mohammed Odeh, Senior Advisor to the President’s Office; Nabil Anani, prominent Palestinian artist; Iman Aoun, Director of Ashtar Theater, Sameh Aboushi, well known architect; and, leading Palestinian artists Suleiman Mansour and Tayseer Barakat.

Professor Mohammed Shaheen holds a PhD in public health and is currently the dean of the school of public health at Al Quds University and the director of training and educational center in public health within Al Quds University. Prof. Shaheen assumes different leadership roles in academic, development, health and psycho-social programs locally, regionally and internationally. He is also a board member of different Palestinian non-governmental organizations such as Dalia Association (aims at mobilizing local resources and minimize the dependence on international aid), Vice president of Childwatch International (promotes rights-based child research worldwide including in Palestine and the region), member of regional child research network (promotes child and adolescent research in the MENA region), member of board of Alzababdeh-Jenin psycho-social center which promotes resilience among children and adolescents), member and one of the founders of the Palestinian Health Policy Forum which helps promote and influence health policies) and serves as an advisor on national and international health and development programs.

Suleiman Mansour is one of the leading Palestinian artists. Born in 1947 in Birzeit, Mansour’s formal academic education was at the Bezallel Art Academy in Jerusalem. He is a co-founder of the Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem (Now director of the Center). He is also a member of the “New Vision” artist group, which focuses on the use of local material in artwork. Mansour is a cartoonist, art instructor, and author of two books on Palestinian folklore. Since 1975 his work has been exhibited in Palestine, Israel, the US, Japan, and Korea and many other Arab and European countries. He was head of the League of Palestinian Artists for four years. He also participated in the French Palestinian spring exhibit at the Paris Institut du Monde Arabe in 1997. He won the ‘Nile award” at the 1998 Cairo Biennial for his series of clay panels “I am Ismail”, and the Palestine Prize for the Visual arts in 1998.

Is an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture and Master Program in Planning and Landscape Architecture- Birzeit University, Birzeit. His current research interests are: colonial & post-colonial spaces, cross-border development and co-operations, spatial planning and relationships of differences, planning and power, communication & capacity in planning, and border studies.
Yazid Anani received his B.S. in Architectural Engineering in 1997 from the Birzeit University, Palestine, and his M.S. in Landscape Architecture in 2000 from the Agricultural University of Norway (UMB), Norway. He received his Dr. rer. pol. in Spatial Planning in 2006 from Dortmund University, Germany. He joined the Department of Architecture and the master program in Planning and landscape Architecture in 1998.
Yazid Anani received a certificate in “Sustainable Development Strategies & Conflict Resolution” from the University of Middle East (UME) in 2000 and a stage certificate in “Regional & Urban Planning and Development” from the Politecnico di Milano in 1998.

Tayseer was born in Gaza in 1959. He studied oil painting in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria University. He has been a member of the League of Palestinian Artists since 1984 in addition being a founding member of many cultural centres in Palestine. He held personal exhibits in Jerusalem and Ramallah, and participated in a number of group exhibits in Jerusalem, Israel, Gaza City, the United States, and Morocco. He participated in the 1996 Sao Polo Biennial and in the French Palestinian Spring Exhibit at the Paris Institut du Monde Arabe. Barakat is a member of the “New Vision” artists group that pioneered in the 1980's the use of local media such as straw, clay, henna, leather, etc. in works of art. He is also a founding member of the Jerusalem Wasiti Art Center. In 1998 he founded the Ziryab Café/Art gallery in Ramallah.

Mohammed Odeh had held a senior position in the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education for the past ten years. He is a specialist in Strategic Planning of non-governmental organizations and especially those specialized in higher education. After working briefly with the Ministry of Interior as Deputy to the Minister, he moved to work in the President's office where he currently holds the position of Senior Advisor.

Mr. Ghunaim is a partner and General Manager of a management consultancy firm “Center for Organizational Excellence”. His education background focuses on economics and management as he possesses a graduate degree in “Public Policy” from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. A Masters Degree in Economics of Development from the University of Montesquieu- Bordeaux IV, France while his BA was in Economics from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.