The Imaginary School Program

KEEP CILAS ALIVE: If you believe in alternative education, consider helping out the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, an independent non-profit organization established in 2012 that offers a one-year study program in the liberal arts for students who are unable to afford a degree from other private institutions.
Recently, CILAS launched a crowd funding campaign on Zoomal to raise funds for the ongoing academic year 2014-2015. It has been forced to do so because of several restrictions imposed by the Egyptian state. Even though the Egyptian constitution very clearly states, "the State shall encourage the establishment of non-profit (…) universities," i.e. institutions of higher education, CILAS was withheld a substantial grant in May 2014 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without citing any reason.
There are 16 days left to meet the mark! Donate and/or spread the word.

Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences CILAS | CILAS | Egypt CILAS offers students the opportunity to pursue a yearlong study programme in the liberal arts.

Guess who got the "i" in Mada's culture alphabet 2014?
Yeah that's right, the Imaginary School Program!
Thanks Mada and thanks to all for a great cultural year 2014.

A brighter-than-expected alphabet of culture for 2014 . A is for the Adham Henein Museum, directed by veteran gallerist Karim Francis and dedicated to the veteran sculptor. It has a delightful sculpture garden and opened at the start of the year.

In December’s session the Imaginary School Program focused on the practice of larger local institutions acting in the realm of civil society, and on how they have been influenced by neoliberal management models. In parallel the session looked into alternative organizational formats that have been experimented in Cairo since 2011 like Cimatheque and Mosireen. To widen the context the participants engaged with individuals who have long experiences with funding strategies and their languages, and researchers who focus on the effects of foreign fundings on the local institutional community.
For more information around the session and tISP please check here:
http://beirutbeirut.org/en/events/549960375562756ee5020000

Imaginary School Program's participant Sama Waly writes beautifully together with Jenifer Evans about Rana ElNemr's exhibition on Mada Masr. Read for yourself.

"Are these gardens imagined, as The Dictionary of Imagines Spaces might suggest? Or are they real, like the photos and videos of urban Egypt that make up the bulk of the show? Perhaps the streetlight, real but distorted, fairy-tale-like, is the connecting element. Is the artist denouncing or celebrating human interventions into the natural environment? As her presence in these works is so modest, we can’t tell."

http://www.madamasr.com/sections/culture/very-real-imagined-spaces-rana-elnemr

Very real imagined spaces of Rana ElNemr Rana ElNemr is known for her photographs of abnormalities of urban Egypt, detached from their surrounding context. Beautiful, they invite us to investigate nameless, dissected environments, often devoid of human presence.