Najla Alshami

Najla Alshami, a Yemeni artist and cultural practitioner, moved to Beirut following the outbreak of war in Yemen in 2014. For more than six years, she has not been back to Yemen. This sudden displacement led Najla taking a long time to find her place and role in her life. At last, she started to go back to her drawings and using different art techniques.

Her themes are always centred around identity, women, and displacement. With time, Najla took a step further to imply herself in art and culture, whilst trying to create a louder voice supporting the Yemen art scene and cultural heritage next to the existing actors working in this field.

While she was in Yemen, Najla worked with different international organisations like the World Bank, UNICEF, and the Social Fund for Development. Her last experience with GIZ was deeply transformative through making her discover the heritage wealth of Yemen. From this moment, she knew that art and culture was her field of interest.

MuseumNext Digital Collections Summit
Tuesday, 5 October 2021

The Yemeni Museums Digitalisation Project

When heritage is lost, it is not only memories that are gone. It is also people that we don’t know and that we will never have the chance to know. The loss of Yemen’s heritage does not call for restitution – except where it is justified. It is not about plunder, despoilment, robbery but instead it is about destitution, destruction, disappearance. The act of documentation – enhanced by the possibilities offered through digitalisation – acquires an added significance and urgency due to the acknowledgement it gives to heritage and to the capacity of these places to forge relationality.

Find the full schedule here