Sharjah24: Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and the Ruler of Sharjah, ICCROM-Sharjah had announced the Jury Committee of the third cycle of the Award for Good Practices in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management in the Arab Region (2021-2022).

This year, the jury included seven independent members representing a large number of scientific, academic and cultural disciplines that are closely related to the themes and objectives of the award, especially those related to the fields of architecture, restoration, preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, museum management, libraries, and others. In every biennial cycle, the ICCROM-Sharjah Award selects the members of the jury from among a large number of distinguished and well-known experts and specialists at both Arab and international levels. 

The list of Jury Committee members of the current cycle includes: 
Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is a columnist and researcher on social, political, and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf states. Al-Qassemi is also founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, UAE. He was an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow and a visiting teacher at a number of prestigious centers and universities around the world.

Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis is the Director and CEO of the Aga Khan Museum. She is a well-known figure in the field with over 20 years of experience as a curator and senior advisor for museum and cultural projects. She holds a PhD in Islamic Art from the University of Edinburgh and served as Co-Director at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization.`

Ms. Manal Ataya is the Director General of Sharjah Museums Authority (SMA), a Museology professional with 15 years of senior managerial experience in museum development and cultural diplomacy. She serves on numerous advisory boards including Global Cultural Districts Network; the University of Sharjah’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; and ICCROM-Sharjah. 

Dr. Stefano Di Caro is an internationally recognized figure in the field of archeology and cultural heritage. He graduated from the Naples University “Federico II” in 1972, and specialized in Classical Greek and Roman Archaeology at the Italian National School of Archaeology. In addition to his field assignments and administrative positions at the Italian Ministry of Culture, he served as Director General (by election) of ICCROM during the period from 2011-2017.

Dr. Amra Hadžimuhamedović is Director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage, International Forum Bosnia. She has been the leading expert in the process of implementing of Annex 8 of the Dayton Peace Accord for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and managing diverse projects of integrating cultural heritage into postwar recovery in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Palestine. She has worked as a consultant for UNESCO, ICCROM; World Bank, ICOMOS International, and others.

Dr. Salah M. Hassan is the Director of The Africa Institute, Sharjah, UAE. He is the Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in African Studies, and Director of the Institute for Comparative Modernities, and Professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Africana Studies and Research Center, and the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, US. He is an art critic, curator, and founding editor of “Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.” 

Mr. Jad Tabet is an architect and planner working between Beirut and Paris. He is Past-President of Lebanese Federation of Engineers and Architects (2017-2021) and Past- President of the Organization of Arab Architects (2017-2020). He is currently Honorary President of ICOMOS LEBANON. Tabet is the author of several academic publications on war and reconstruction, and on the relationship between heritage and modernity.

For more information about the award please visit: https://iccromsharjahawards.org/

“What distinguishes the jury members of the third session of the ICCROM-Sharjah Award for Good Practices is not only their diversity in terms of the academic specializations and cultural interests they represent, but also their geographical distribution. This is the first time that the jury committee includes distinguished international experts from outside the Arab region alongside their Arab counterparts”, Dr. Zaki Aslan, Director of ICCROM-Sharjah said on this occasion.

"As we approach the date of concluding the third cycle of this award; which has been massively developed by time in terms of its presence and importance thanks to the support, guidance and patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah; I would like to salute and thank all members of the jury who will enrich this award through their valuable ideas, academic expertise and practical experiences”, Dr Aslan added. 

“The jury committee will meet later this month to review all submitted projects and select the shortlist of projects that will compete later to win this prestigious award. The winning projects will be announced in a special ceremony to be held in the second half of next May in Sharjah”, He concluded. 

The ICCROM-Sharjah Award for Good Practices in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management in the Arab Region was first launched in 2017. It aims to honor and reward outstanding work that contributes to the protection and vitality of tangible cultural heritage in the Arab world. The Award includes two main categories: heritage sites and buildings; and collections in cultural institutions such as museums and archives. 

In the previous cycle of the ICCROM-Sharjah Award, the “Rehabilitation of Souk al-Saqatiya” in Aleppo, Syria, a project funded and implemented by the Aga Khan Development Network, won the Grand Award on the category of “Heritage Sites and Buildings”. While the Grand Award for the second category of “Collections in Cultural Institutions” was given to the project of “Digitising and First Aid to Documentary Heritage of “Manuscripts Collection of the Great Omari Mosque Library” in Gaza, Palestine, presented by the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza.