This year’s 20 Training and Regional Events Grants support people who are building skills in difficult conditions. The projects take different forms, but they rest on the same conviction: that learning together can preserve memory, amplify silenced voices, and help communities heal.

Some of the selected projects aim to revive public spaces, oral traditions, history, and archeological memory. Others explore how nature can hold memory and absence, how historical spaces can become living environments, and how alternative forms of capacity-building support can help reimagine local, natural, and cultural resources.

Several projects use the performing arts to reclaim public space, empower young makers, and help children heal, ranging from a dance festival, to marionette workshops for youths, and a play-based initiative that helps children regain expression and connection.

The 301 applications submitted this year were reviewed by reading committees comprising publisher Moaz Akkari (Tunisia); Farah Fayed, director of Aflamuna (Lebanon); creative producer and dramaturge Khulood Basel (Palestine); curator and film programmer Ahmed Refaat (Egypt); cultural manager Dounia Benslimane (Morocco); and theater director and cultural manager Raed Asfour (Jordan).

The shortlisted applications were then evaluated by a jury composed of Tunisian journalist Chaima Alabidi, Palestinian cultural executive and producer Marina Barham, and Egyptian cultural manager Mohab Saber.

Meet this year’s grantees and their projects

• Local Films - Sudanese Steps by Walaa Abdalazez, Sudan
• Living Stones: Stories from Rural Jerusalem by Riwaq- Centre For Architectural Conservation, Palestine
• Amalgam Studio Biennial Festival 2027 by Amalgam Studio, Lebanon
• Marsah Art and Studio Residency - From the Peripheries, Together by Marsah- Warche 13, Lebanon
• Digital Archive of Hadramout by Yaser Ahmed Qaniwi, Yemen
• The Raja Ben Ammar Living Arts Lab by Hayyou'Raqs, Tunisia
• Fankeenna Film Fest by Fankeenna, Somalia
• Quarries Between Egypt and South Africa: Excavating the Quarries of History by Sarah El Raghy, Egypt
• Her Stories by Nour Dahdal, Syria
• Breathing Memory by Cultural Symposium Club, Palestine
• ARAF Center of Training and Research in Performing Arts by El Hamra, Tunisia
• Roots and Shadows: Community Arts and Psychosocial Support for Children in Gaza by CISS - Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, Italy
• The Story Lab by Filmlab Palestine, Palestine
• Bound Narratives Photobook Festival: Egypt by Roi Saade, Lebanon
• Through Their Lens by Sabine Sidawi, Lebanon
• Cinedelta 27 by FigLeaf Studios, Egypt
• Deaf Animation Workshop by Waguih El Laqany, Egypt
• Laboratory for Cultural Rights and Development by Agora For Cultural Development, Egypt
• My Grandfather's Tale by Fragments Theater, Palestine
• Qantara Fellowship by MEDEARTS, Jordan