First Palestinian museum in US to open in Connecticut
Wafa News Agency — NEW HAVEN, March 25, 2018 (WAFA) – For the first time ever, a museum displaying the history, art and culture of the Palestinian people is expected to open within a few days in Woodbridge, an outskirt of New Haven in Connecticut, being the first of its kind in the Americas.
Faisal Saleh, executive director of Palestine Museum US, told reporters that he believes the museum will offer a fuller and more intricate picture of the Palestinian land and people than Americans see in mainstream media.
“The mission of the museum is to preserve Palestinian history and celebrate the artistic achievement of Palestinians in the US and Palestine and tell the Palestinian story through art and literature and other forms of artistic expression,” Saleh said in a statement.
Suzan Bushnaq’s works are now mounted in Palestine Museum US. Based in Kuwait, Bushaq uses vibrant color and an impressionistic approach to express the multifaceted vitality of women.
“The history will be presented through photographs and art,” Saleh said. “It will not take any political posture and political position on issues… It will be quite independent and will not be influenced by any political organizations.”
Saleh, who hails from al-Bireh city in the occupied West Bank, said while there are similar Palestinian museums elsewhere, including in Birzeit in the West Bank and Bristol in England, this museum will be the first of its kind in the United States.
“Eventually we can see a larger museum in a major city like Washington, D.C., or New York,” he said. Saleh added that Woodbridge was chosen because “there was some opportunity to have some space there without spending a lot of money.”
He continued, “We feel that moving the dialogue or the discourse from the political arena to the artistic and cultural arena can be more beneficial and more effective.”
“The Palestinians have been dehumanized and portrayed in very negative ways. Our job is to show that Palestinians are human, like everybody else, and they have thousands of artists, they excel in the arts.”
Click here to view the website of the Palestine Museum in the US.
Click here to view the Palestine Museum USA Facebook Page.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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