Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Nevine al-Kilany inaugurated the ‘Heritage House’ at the Traditional Crafts Center in Fusat on Monday in the presence of the Regional Director of UNESCO in Cairo, Nuria Sanz.
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Egypt’s signing the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage with UNESCO coincides with the same day as this action.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Suha Gendi, Minister of Immigration, Major General Khaled Abdel-Al, Governor of Cairo, Dr. Abdel Aziz Al-Musallam, President of the Sharjah Heritage Institute, as well as a number of ambassadors, UNESCO representatives, leaders of the Ministry of Culture, and civil society organizations concerned with heritage.
The next part of the program was a visit to the late artist Ikram Ammar’s “The Flight of the Holy Family” display. It included a number of the artist’s most significant works that illustrated different parts of the holy family’s trip. It also included a display of Arabic calligraphy created by Khudair Al-Borsaidi’s art school.
Kilany stated that the ministry is finishing a cycle of cultural preservation and going about its business of upholding Egypt’s identity. She promised that they would use all available resources to preserve and promote them by creating a national archive of intangible cultural treasures.
She said, pledging to uphold this goal to the utmost ability that, “the ministry provides a space to celebrate heritage, in which every Egyptian can find an opportunity to practice their heritage, learn about the legacy of their ancestors, and interact positively with it.”
On her end, Sanz stated that “Egypt is known as the birthplace of the World Heritage Convention, as the Egyptian authorities and experts played a pivotal role in the preparatory stage for the adoption of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention.”
The Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs, Soha Gendi, the Governor of Cairo, Khaled Abdel-Aal, the President of the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, Abdulaziz al-Musallam Abdulaziz, as well as a number of ambassadors, UNESCO representatives, officials from the Ministry of Culture, and representatives of heritage-related civil society organizations attended the inauguration.