Voie 13
Semaan building
Jbeil
Lebanon
- Arts
Beirut and Beyond is a Non-Profit Organization registered in Lebanon with full-time director and program manager, and a part-time administrative/logistic coordinator. We hire freelancers for projects and the festival editions.
The structure is financed mainly by the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, with additional support from the AFAC, the French Institute in Beirut, and the British Council in Lebanon; in addition to partnerships with entities like Music Halls in London, the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, and FIMU in Belfort.
The yearly budget varies between 70,000 and 120,000 USD depending on the project requirements and challenges.
Our set list of projects includes a yearly edition of the showcase festival, workshops and residencies. We also work on exchange and collaboration projects for export of talent and decentralization.
Our founding partner is Oslo World in Norway, and our current partners for residencies are Prozess in Switzerland, and Rumman in Lebanon.
One of the most important aspects of our work is to promote the talent from Lebanon and the MENA region. We believe it is our duty to introduce promising, under-the-radar artists to our international partners and network so that we can export music from the region to the world.
As a continuation of our initial mission, we are dedicated to developing the local scene by identifying weak points and needs and providing solutions for them to be able to strengthen the infrastructure of the music scene and create opportunities.
Our objectives are:
Promote independent musicians through our yearly showcase festival
Create opportunities for musicians by connecting them with music professionals during the festival and through the collaborations created with local and regional partners
Become an agent of change and development towards a transparent, equal, and professional music scene in the region, by exhibiting good practice and offering new work models
Establish and foster long-term collaborations and partnerships within the music industry both locally and internationally
Expose audiences to a wide range of musical genres celebrating the universality of music
Develop new audiences by providing access through affordable prices, targeting youth and developing decentralized programs
Boost creative development by providing artists with residencies and the right tools to progress their career
Emphasize capacity building through workshops and support programs for artists and practitioners
Offer a platform for freedom of expression and positive intercultural exchange in a fragile and conflicted region
Yearly showcase festival (BBIMF)
Local residencies
International residencies
Workshops
Support programs
Webinars
Panel discussions
Cultural exchange
We learned a lot and gained valuable experience during our 10 years of activity in Lebanon, the region and abroad. We have established beneficial connections and managed to form a good understanding of the different aspects of the music scene and industry in Lebanon and abroad. We have been working hard on inclusivity, be it in terms of offering equal opportunities to musicians from different backgrounds/level of expertise/music genres, or by fighting for gender equality in a generally male-dominated music scene. We believe that we will bring valuable insight to the Network in our country, and we look forward to sharing our tools, resources and connections with the members of the Network, in addition to building potential partnerships with them. We look forward to searching for common grounds with the local Network members and working towards a more solid and concrete infrastructure in the music industry in a way that helps us achieve our goals and theirs.
We believe that joining the ALF network will help us bridge a lot of gaps in the way we operate by opening up to different discourses and narratives about issues that other ALF Network members might have more expertise in.