Art Jameel and the British Council are celebrating the completion of Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform, a landmark programme supporting arts-led responses to the climate crisis across the Arab world. Launched in 2023, Anhar invested £311,540 in 18 artists, collectives, cultural organisations and UK-Arab partnerships working across 13 countries.
Collectively, the programme reached more than 32,000 participants, delivered more than 40 public events and 20 training sessions across 10 countries, and supported lasting sustainability improvements at cultural organisations through initiatives including solar power, energy-efficiency upgrades and community green spaces. Through grants, commissions and collaborative projects, the programme explored how arts and culture can contribute to environmental awareness, community resilience and more sustainable shared futures. Anhar grants recipients included artists and organisations from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait and the United Kingdom.
Over three years, Anhar supported a diverse range of initiatives addressing the climate crisis through creative practice. Projects engaged communities, supported local ecosystems, explored the environmental challenges facing cities and landscapes using an artistic lens and strengthened organisational sustainability. The programme also fostered new collaborations between artists, cultural institutions and environmental practitioners across the Arab region and the UK.
“Anhar beautifully encapsulates what we seek to achieve through our arts work at the British Council. At its heart are the three pillars of our work: supporting artistic expression and creativity, fostering meaningful community engagement and strengthening the cultural ecosystems. Anhar demonstrates the power of the arts to engage with pressing global challenges in ways that are locally relevant, meaningful and rooted in lived experience,” said Amany Abouzeid, Regional Arts Director, MENA, British Council.
Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel, said: “Anhar began with a simple question: what role can the arts play in addressing the climate crisis in our region? Over the past three years, the programme’s recipients have answered that question in inspiring and imaginative ways. From community-led initiatives to ambitious artistic collaborations, Anhar has demonstrated the vital contribution that culture can make to environmental awareness, resilience and long-term change. We are excited to see the partnerships, ideas and networks nurtured through the programme continue to grow in the years ahead.”
As the programme concludes, Anhar leaves behind a strong network of artists, organisations and partners committed to advancing creative responses to environmental challenges.
The programme was delivered through three funding strands: supporting individual artists and collectives; cultural organisations implementing sustainability measures; and large-scale collaborations between partners in the Arab world and the UK.
The grants, totalling £311,540 (US$394,528), were distributed across these three tiers:
Tier 1: Seven artists, creative practitioners, collectives and collaborative ventures in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Iraq and Kuwait whose climate-related projects raised community awareness on topics from architectural design and environmental degradation, industrial pollution and climate change through to shipwrecks and the future of food.
Tier 2: Six organisations and venues implementing decarbonisation strategies and investments in renewable energy infrastructure across North Africa and the Levant.
Tier 3: Five collaborations between UK and MENA-based artists and cultural organisations developing large-scale artistic responses to the climate emergency through public programmes, commissions, publications, film screenings and workshops.
Launched in the lead up to the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), hosted by the United Arab Emirates, Anhar represents a landmark commissioning programme that supports arts and ecology practitioners across the Arab world and beyond, fostering cross-cultural collaboration and a shared commitment to addressing the climate crisis through creativity and community engagement.
