In This Issue
This issue of Sekka was produced by an all-women team. Female artists around the world have been underrepresented, and many advocates have campaigned to increase the representation of works by female artists in galleries and museums. As part of our efforts to increase female representation, featured on our cover is art by Menhat Helmy, the pioneering Egyptian artist whose work and legacy we highlight through our cover story interview with her grandson Karim Zaidan.

Letter from the editors
Cover Story
Rediscovering Menhat Helmy, Egypt’s pioneering printmaker
Journalist Karim Zidan is preserving his grandmother’s legacy to inspire the next generation of female Arab artists.
Features
Shk. Hoor Al Qasimi on arts programming during COVID-19
Sharjah Art Foundation’s president and director discusses the emirate’s new Africa Institute and the 30th anniversary of the Sharjah Biennial.
H.E. Zaki Nusseibeh: Why we need art now more than ever
“Its significance, its need, its urgency, is all the more acute today.”
Inside the Palestinian Museum
The museum without borders: a new perspective on Palestine one click away.
How Ithra is connecting the world through art
Explore Saudi’s “all-purpose cultural hub.”
What will the art world’s future look like?
Art Jameel’s Antonia Carver discusses the future of art galleries, museums and fairs in the region in the wake of COVID-19.
Arts and Culture
Amal Waqar, the Omani girl with the oud
This young talent is making strides in the male dominated field.
Marilyn Booth on translators’ responsibility to push back on stereotypes
The award-winning translator shares her journey in the world of translation with us.
Meet the Kuwaiti artist visualizing the frustration of telework during the pandemic
Mohammad Sharaf humorously captures our new normal.
How Haya Al Ghanim connects Arab filmmakers with global cinema
Meet the Kuwaiti woman behind New Arab Cinema.
Tasneem Alsultan: The Saudi photographer providing an authentic Saudi narrative
“If I could change the views of only 20 per cent of the people who see my photos, that would be an achievement”
“The pandemic will affect floor plans for years to come”
Bahraini architect Ali Karimi on housing architecture in the Gulf.
Hanan Kamal: I don’t like to be confined to one space, so I excelled in graffiti art
Meet this young Saudi graffiti artist.
Jassim Al Qamis on the power of content creation
“I realized that I could make significant change by creating videos and written content”
7 Moroccans making retro fashion cool again
They transport us decades back in time.
The Khaleeji animator spreading joy in this crisis
Kuwaiti animator Sulaiman Al Zuhair is on a special mission these days.
Meet the Kuwaiti animator who animates his films by himself
Yousef Albagshi is a versatile artist whose talent knows no bounds.
Travel
6 contemporary art spaces in the GCC you need to know
From Jeddah to Muscat to Kuwait, these spaces should be on your radar.