Sharjah 24: Sharjah Museums Authority (SMA) has announced that November 3rd will be the last day for accepting entries to join its international award-winner SAWA Museum Studies Programme, an annual cross-cultural exchange initiative that covers the diverse areas of working in museums and the cultural field.

Directed at Arab and German young museum professionals, the four-phase programme is a long-running collaboration between SMA, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Goethe-Institute Gulf Region together with the University of Applied Sciences Berlin.
 
This year’s edition, which gives more focus to climate change and its impact on the sphere of museology and allows participants to expand the SAWA glossary of museum terms, will kick off with an online introduction on January 23rd and conclude on December 11, 2023. 
 
Participants will engage in online and face-to-face seminars, workshops and projects that cover topics including diversity, curatorial strategies, collecting and documenting as well as the UAE heritage.

Phase one of the programme begins in Sharjah between February 12 and 23, while the second stage will take place between Sharjah and Berlin from March 13 to August 28, after which participants will share their presentations of their museums in phase three in Berlin between September 4 and 14.
 
The final phase will continue from September 25 until November 20 before concluding the programme on December 11.
 
SAWA, which means ‘Together’ in Arabic, is a unique programme that supports and develops capabilities and necessary skills, by equipping participants with essential tools and international best practices in museology that are required in today’s world. 

The programme which was first held in Sharjah and Berlin in 2015 and 2016 respectively, introduces participants to other cultures while simultaneously providing them with an opportunity to study together and learn from each other’s experiences and expertise. 
 
In 2021, the programme launched its ‘Glossary Project’ aimed at discussing museological terms in today’s world. The museological terms and their definitions based on their use and value within individual and local museological practices were posted in the first issue of an online multicultural terminology publication.
 
Interested individuals can sign up to the programme by submitting their applications and letters of recommendations to [email protected]
 
Those who get invited to take part in the 2023 edition will be notified towards the end of November 2022.