Alwanat

Category: Local Organization
Target groups: Children, youth, families, and professional and aspiring artists
Main field: Arts and Culture
Setting: Urban and rural
Year founded: 2014
Brief Description: Alwanat is an initiative that uses art as a means to achieve social change. It offers a space for the arts and cultural activities and breaks the confines of centralization by organizing important cultural events, such as book fairs, film festivals, and street performances. Alwanat is for all age and socio-economic groups (children, youth, families, artists—professional and aspiring). It aims to create a free space for everybody through holding training sessions and artistic workshops. It aims to challenge stereotypes. It has also started a ballet school that focuses on teaching girls dancing and body positivity themes, in order to disrupt the culture of body shaming prevalent in society. It aspires to create a society with unique artistic and cultural accomplishments, in order to battle the stereotypical image of a conservative, backwards Upper Egypt.