Living Hands: Heritage and Design in Dialogue opens in Al-Bireh Cultural Centre, Ramallah, celebrating Six endangered Palestinian crafts

The exhibition "Living Hands: Heritage and Design in Dialogue" opened on Tuesday, at the Al-Bireh Cultural Center, celebrating six endangered Palestinian traditional crafts and the artisans who keep them alive: glassblowing, pottery, olivewood carving, mother-of-pearl inlay, loom weaving (Majdalawi and Baladi), and bamboo (reed) weaving.

Organized by UNESCO with the financial support of the European Union, the exhibition presents the results of the project "Preserving Endangered Traditional Crafts and Enhancing Employability in the Creative Sector in Palestine." It brings together the work of craftspeople, designers, artists, associations, and young creatives engaged in preserving and reimagining these craft traditions for new generations.

At the heart of the exhibition is a simple message: Palestinian craft is a living practice, one that safeguards identity, skill, and livelihoods, and one that continues to be renewed and passed on. To this end, the project worked to safeguard the six crafts and revive demand for them, while connecting artisans and designers to new markets, spaces, and opportunities within the creative sector.

Opening the event, Mr. Karim Hendili, Head of the UNESCO Ramallah Office, underlined the fact that experience has shown that safeguarding a craft is inseparable from safeguarding memory: keeping a loom threaded, a kiln burning, or a shell being carved is a quiet but firm affirmation that Palestinian culture endures.

Minister of Culture Imad Hamdan underscored that intangible cultural heritage lies at the core of national identity and stands as a pillar of the Palestinian people's resilience. He noted that the project brings together the expertise of senior artisans with the creativity of young designers, reintroducing heritage in a contemporary language capable of competing in today's economy.

Mario Giuseppe Varrenti, Head of Cooperation, European Union, highlighted that Palestinian crafts carry generations of knowledge and memory, passed from one pair of hands to the next. He noted that, amid the hardships facing Palestinian communities, cultural expression takes on added significance, allowing Palestinians to preserve their identity while continuing to create and look to the future. He added that supporting this heritage means more than preserving tradition, it means sustaining the livelihoods of craftspeople and ensuring their knowledge is passed on. Through "Living Hands," he affirmed, the European Union is proud to support Palestinian craftspeople and communities in safeguarding their cultural heritage.

The exhibition marks the culmination of an end-to-end process: beginning with research into the six crafts, their value chains, and the challenges facing them, and their documentation within the Palestinian National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage; followed by direct financial and technical support to artisans and associations; and culminating in tangible outcomes, craft objects, prototypes, and design concepts, now presented to the public through this travelling exhibition. In total, the project engaged 24 artisans, 43 designers, seven associations, and one academic institution across 27 projects in 13 cities and villages across Palestine.

The works on display reflects a dialogue between heritage and contemporary design sensibility, born of direct collaboration between designers, artisans, and students, who reinterpreted traditional techniques into contemporary, functional objects: from hand-blown glass collections and breakfast sets to lighting and furniture drawing on olivewood, pottery, and weaving. A cornerstone of the project is CREATE, implemented by the Faculty of Art, Music and Design at Birzeit University, which brings students and designers together with master artisans through talks, workshops, and field training, fostering exchange between generations and connecting inherited skill with new ideas.

Following its opening, in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, the exhibition will run until 20 October before travelling to Bethlehem on 5 November 2026, carrying forward the stories of these crafts and the artisans who keep them alive.

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