The Cultural Development Fund (CDF) is the Ministry of Culture's most important arm, financing most official cultural activities across Egypt. Although the CDF's budget has suffered since the 2011 revolution, when the Ministry of Antiquities – itself in debt to the Ministry of Finance due to the decline in tourism – stopped paying the Ministry of Culture ten percent of its earnings, the CDF has resumed its activities, organising events and working to provide new income opportunities. For the force behind such energy, CDF head Neveen El-Kilany, in the last year the CDF's three most important projects have been completing the restoration of the Aisha Fahmy Palace, starting the Al-Fustat Centre for Traditional Handicrafts development project and preparing the Naguib Mahfouz Museum. The handing over of the palace to the Plastic Art Sector for inauguration following a long drawn out restoration process that started in 2010 and was repeatedly halted is, for El-Kilany, a dream come true. Over two phases which involved consolidating and filling up cracks in the walls, refurbishing the marble stairs, clearing the basement area and restoring or replacing tapestries, stained glass, ornaments, wooden frames and paintings, the palace has also acquired new, state-of-the-art lighting, air conditioning and security systems including CCTV. The landscaping of a newly replanted garden was also redone to include a small stage, and a cafeteria and bookshop are planned for the roof. As for the Al-Fustat Centre for Traditional Handicrafts project, El-Kilany announced the second part of the first phase of development, which includes establishing ceramics, woodwork, copper, glass blowing – “a very important craft threatened with extinction” – and khayamiya textile workshops. The space will become more user-friendly, what is more; it is being developed to include galleries, artist ateliers, a cafeteria, a bookshop, an open-air theatre and a service area as well as such venues as a permanent porcelain museum highlighting the oeuvre of renowned Egyptian artist Nabil Darwish. The Naguib Mahfouz Museum, to open shortly the Ottoman Tekkeyet Mohamed Beik Abul-Dahab in historic Cairo, will commemorate the 1988 Nobel laureate who was born and wrote of the area. The museum was to take up Mahfouz's own house in Al-Gamalia, but the condition of the house prevented it. The Tekkeya, on the other hand, had been contested by the Ministry of Antiquities, since it was it was used as an inspectorate headquarters, but the CDF finally laid hands on the ground and first floors with the second floor used for offices. El-Kilany says the ground floor will house a Mahfouz library, reading and lecture halls, an activity area and a bookshop selling Ministry of Culture publications. The first floor will display the Mahfouz private collection, including awards and honours as well as personal objects such as clothing, glasses, pens, papers and letters. *** El-Kilany listed other projects in addition. The Beit Al Meamar Al-Masri (Egyptian Architecture House) at the Ali Afandi Labib House at Darb Al-Labbana in the Citadel area was officially inaugurated to show to public Egypt's historical architectural designs by the likes of Hassan Fathy, Ramsess and Wessa Wassef. The museum is composed of an exhibition area as well as a workshop, a lecture hall and a digital library. “The house is not only a museum for architecture,” El-Kilany said, explaining it is also a creative centre with an architecture-related activities programme including Islamic art and architecture lectures and free classes for children from the surrounding neighbourhoods. This year the CDF also managed to establish the Al-Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Tohamy religious chanting school at the Prince Taz Palace in Al-Khalifa area, and 40 religious chanters graduated from it. A symposium on Historical Chanting named Al Tawashih and Tawashoh is now on the CDF agenda, to be organised at the House of Arabic Music (Beyt Al-Ghenaa Al-Arabi) in Beit Al-Harawy House in Al-Azhar. This symposium aims at reviving a specific kind of chanting well-known in antiquity and derived from Andalusia and Turkey as well as the old Ottoman and Mameluk eras. In an attempt to provide more cultural services in Upper Egypt, what is more, next year the CDF will launch the first round of Al-Sawt Al-Zahaby (The Golden Voice) competition, aimed at identifying new talented singers at Al-Menia University, which has a large stage for the performances. The competition was launched for the first time last year in Cairo and the five winners are now successful professionals. According to El-Kilany, “The CDF is adopting a new policy in order to direct all its budget to continue its cultural development role in society rather than organising festivals and concerts.” No longer supporting established singers, the CDF funds younger singers and bands who “need our support more to start their professional career”. The fund is also spreading geographically with creative centres planned for Saint Catherine and Sohag and a permanent Luxor International Atelier, which provides artists with the opportunity to produce work within the historic city – providing 25 senior and another 25 junior artists with three-month grants in photography, graphics and sculpture – on seven feddans of land provided by the governorate. The Luxor Painting Symposium too will reintroduce the youth award, while the Animation Symposium will offer LE50 thousand towards the production of the best animation screenplay. To celebrate Luxor as the capital of international tourism this year, the CDF is organising a theatre performance at one of Luxor's famous archaeological sites under the title Masrah Al-Makan (The Theatre of Place), which will recount the history of the site and the stories behind its construction and the people who built it. Mohamed Morsi, the director of the play to be produced, is to select the site within weeks. “I do not want to interfere in the director's choice,” El-Kilany said, “but I hope he will choose the Queen Hatshepsut Temple at Al-Deir Al-Bahari or King Ramsess II's on Luxor's west bank or the Luxor Temple.” Morsi has already written a play about the relocation of the Nubian temples from their original location to its current site during the High Dam salvage operation in the 1960s, to be performed at the Abu Simbel Temple in February, and he is putting together a play for the Al-Manesterly Palace on Al-Roda Island in Cairo to be performed soon.Morsi previously directed two plays on Prince Taz, performed at his residential palace in Al-Khalifa area and on Al-Sultan Al-Ghouri, performed in his complex in Al-Azhar. “In an attempt to increase its income the CDF has created new opportunities,” El-Kilany said, participating in a 45-day handicraft exhibition that is to be organised next month in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the Industries Union: a good hub for selling the products of Al-Fustat Centre for Traditional Handicrafts.
