On 30th October, the Foundation celebrated the opening of its permanent new premises in London. These contain the offices of the Board of Trustees as well as the Mosaic Rooms, an exhibition and entertainment space to host different cultural activities. The opening was inaugurated with Occupied Space 2008, an art exhibition including over 100 works organized in collaboration with and in support of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Britain.

The Culture and Arts Programme (CAP) announced the winners of both the Young Artist of the Year 2008 and the Young Writer of the Year 2008 awards (short story and poetry category). It also announced the winners of the Ismail Shamout Prize and the Qattan Distinction Award for Distinguished Cultural Work. The announcements were made during the final ceremony of CAP held at Al-Kasbah Theatre in Ramallah on 24 th October which included piano performances by Fadi Deeb and Nizar Al Khater; a qanoun performance by Suhail Nassar and a solo theatrical interlude by Adham Na'aman.

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September 30 th marked the end of the Classics of European Cinema in Arabic. During the project's 9 month span, a translation unit using the FAB system was established, and three technicians were trained on its use in collaboration with Sama Productions. In addition, the rights of 15 classic European films were obtained; the films were translated and distributed for non-commercial screenings to the 47 school cine-clubs established by the Foundation and to members of Shabaka.

For more information, click: http://www.cineshabaka.net

The Foundation welcomed a number of foreign delegations to its Ramallah offices, briefing them on the cultural situation in Palestine with a view to fostering joint collaboration. Delegates included:

• Harry Putker, Dutch First Secretary, accompanied by Andre Vaughan and Henriette van Gulik from the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
• Jean-Paul Ghoneim and Valerie Foques from the French Consulate
• Brendan McSharry, Kate Owen and Suha Al Khuffash from the British Council
• Ulf Sarner from the Drama and Music School at Gotenberg University in Sweden

The Foundation published its 2007-2008 Annual Report with details of its achievements and projects over the year. The report focussed on our work in the Gaza Strip in the shadow of the ongoing Israeli siege.

To obtain any of the Foundation's publications in Palestine or abroad (click here)

The Qattan Centre for the Child (QCC) launched its Autumn programme of activities at the beginning of September, under the title “The Seas…the Mysteries of the Deep”. This will continue until the end of November. Activities will consist of a number of events and courses related to marine life and the wondrous creatures hidden in the depths of the seas, using a number of various technologies.

The Information Technology Unit continued running its training courses. In the library, 5,351 external loans were recorded throughout September and October and 8,710 materials were used on-site by visitors. The number of members of the Centre, both parents and children, reached 11,738 by the end of October.

Hundreds of children took part in the activities during an open day commemorating three years since the Centre began its work. Activities varied between free-style painting, face painting, puppet shows, role-playing and clown shows. During the celebrations, the contribution of actively participating children and parents was acknowledged.

The Centre convened several meetings during which children and parents had the opportunity to discuss and evaluate the Centre's current services. Participants' views and suggestions were recorded for future reference.

The Extended Service Programme continued its activities in the central and northern areas of the Gaza Strip. 6,800 children from 14 different institutions in the Strip benefitted from the activities, which comprised book displays, art activities and film screenings, in addition to the loan of 3,000 items of library materials to children's libraries run by several different organisations.

The Programme supported the staging of the play “An Autumn Tale” at Al-Kasabah Theatre on 25 th October. It was produced by Al-Midan Theatre in Haifa, directed by Nizar Al-Zoubi and starred Makram Khouri, Salim Daw and Salwa Naqara. The Programme also supported four performances of the children's play “Layla” by Al-Fawanis Theatre Group at the Said Mishal Foundation for Culture and Education in Gaza between 1 st – 6 th September, and four performances of the theatrical work “Adnan and Lina – The Accursed Land”, presented by the artists Imad Miziro and Adnan Abu Samina in various parts of the West Bank. Additionally, there were eight performances of the play “Wheat Grain” presented by the artist Nidal Al-Khatib of the Tantura Puppet Theatre Company.

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The Programme organised the opening of the Young Artist of the Year Award 2008 at the Foundation's headquarters in Ramallah on 15 th October. It also organised a tour of the various places where competing works were exhibited, namely the International Academy of Arts, the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, the old Ramallah Municipality building and the Mahata Gallery, in addition to the Foundation. These exhibitons continued until 30 th October.

In collaboration with Oxfam Belgium, the Programme organised a meeting on 15 th September between Belgian academic and cultural figures and representatives of Palestinian civil organisations working in the cultural field. The visiting delegation learned about the cultural situation in Palestine and discussed opportunities for mutual cooperation. The Programme also organised, in collaboration with the Franco–German Cultural Centre, a meeting on 24 th September with French artist Ernest Pignon–Ernest about his work. During the meeting, a documentary film on Pignon-Ernest's research on Jean Genet was screened. The Programme also organised, in collaboration with the International Academy of Arts, a lecture by the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto (who was also a member of the Young Artist of the Year 2008 Jury) on 25 th October at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah during which the artist spoke about his work.

On 11 th October, the Centre ran a workshop in Jenin as part of the Integrated Learning Project. Conducted by Wael Kishek and Mashour Al Batran, fifteen teachers took part.

During the workshop, the nature, aims and anticipated results were clarified as were the roles of the researchers and teachers taking part. A research paper on the concept of integration in education was presented.

The Gaza Centre organised a number of workshops in which teachers took part. These included:

• Producing models of thinking for teachers
• Preparation of training lessons about the culture of knowledge
• Analysing the content of aspects of mathematics text books for the 6 th grade
• Preparing an Arabic lesson plan about skills of creative thinking
• Preparing enrichment activities in the science curriculum about scientific culture