Beirut Art Residency

Beirut Art Residency (BAR) was a non-profit, artist-run interdisciplinary residency based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Beirut Art Residency (BAR) was founded in 2015 by Amar A. Zahr and Nathalie Ackawi in Beirut, Lebanon.^[1] The project offered a two-month residency program for 3-5 residents at a time. The artist-in-residence program aimed to stimulate creativity through interaction with local environments, artists, and cultural institutions, attempting to foster cross-cultural exchange between participants and Beirut’s artistic community.^[2]

The program consisted of artists from various disciplines, such as visual arts, concept and theory, design, film & video, installation, music and sound, performance, photography and curatorial research.^[3] It was in Gemmayzeh, which has numerous art galleries.^[4] The residency aimed to build community through interaction and engagement and provide a platform for communication between the invited artists and the Lebanese art scene.^[5]

A jury of local and international creatives selected the artists at BAR. The jury consisted of the following people:

• Ziad Antar, photographer, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Third Line Gallery ^[6]
• Sunny Rahbar, director^[7]
• Mari Spirito, art historian, photographer, and founder of Protocinema
• Gregory Buchakjian,art historian & photographer
• Myriam Ben Salah, curator and writer^[8]

The advisory board also included Ali Khadra, founder of Canvas Magazine,^[9] and Middle Eastern art collector Khaled Jalanbo.^[10]

• Phase I (September 1 - 1 October 2015): Sara Naim^[11] and Athier Mousawi^[12]
• Phase II (October 1 - 1 November 2015): Ivana Ivkovic,^[13] Lucienne Bestall,^[14] and Pierre Dalpé^[15]
• Phase III (January 1 - 1 February 2016): Ibi Ibrahim,^[16] Lara Ögel,^[17] and Evelyn Simons
• Phase IV (April 1 - 1 May 2016): Mary Ann Peters,^[18] Naomi Moser,^[19] and Amor Herrera^[20]
• Phase V (June 1 - 1 July 2016): Dexter Davey,^[21] Isaac Blease,^[22] Sumiah Salloum,^[23] and Asiya Alsharabi
• Phase VI (September 1 - 1 October 2016): Gianna Dispenza^[24] and Darryl Westly^[25]
• Phase VII (November 1 - 1 December 2016): Rehan Miskci,^[26] Nicolas Courdy, and Ragnheidur Gestsdottir^[27]
• Phase VIII (January 1 - March 1 2017): Abdelkader Benchamma, Hilda Ekeroth,^[28] and Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos^[29]

During the second year of BAR, La Vitrine emerged as a response to the lack of public art in the city. La Vitrine is a four by two meter, high-ceilinged room with a glass door acting as the only separator between the art and the sidewalks of Beirut. Artists are invited on a bi-monthly basis to work on site-specific interventions responding mainly to social issues and public space.^[30]