Guide to Resources relating to MEI's Virtual Art Show: Lebanon Then and Now

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JSTOR
This is an academic database with more than 12 million journal articles, books, and primary sources. In it, a simple keyword search (without quotes) for “photography Lebanon” or “modern art Lebanon” will return a wide variety of results. To narrow the search further, look to the left-side menu, where at the top it gives users the option to “search within results” for other keywords, or to filter results by publication type, publication date, subject, or access level--subscription or open access.

JSTOR’s partnership with Artstor means that an increasing number of images are findable through both platforms.
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Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA)
Beirut Museum of Art’s new building is scheduled to open in 2023. The new museum space will be centrally located in the heart of Beirut, on the site that once marked the dividing line in the Lebanese Civil War. The museum currently houses three separate loan collections, including that of the Ministry of Culture. Its permanent collection will include modern and contemporary artworks from Lebanon, the Lebanese diaspora, and the wider region.

Beirut Museum of Art Collection Collaborative (BeMACC) was recently launched at Rice University in Texas, and showcases the Lebanese Ministry of Culture’s collection. The platform is freely available to the public and allows users to view BeMA’s collection online, via Artstor.
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Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME)
DLME provides open access to resources demonstrating the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of universities and cultural heritage institutions, including American University of Beirut. Images in the digital library include fully browsable digitized books--including some that had originally been preserved on microfilm, posters, drawings, photographs, and sound and video files. The posters include fliers and announcements from museums for their art exhibitions.  

A simple search of the database, without quotation marks, for“Lebanon art” or “Beirut art” returns over 150 results from the 1800’s through the 1990’s which include photographs and drawings.

A search for “Lebanon museum” or “Lebanon exhibition” will limit the results to exhibition posters.

The Getty Research Institute
Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) and Répertoire international de la littérature de l'art (RILA) are two citation databases (i.e. not open access) that are made available by The Getty for free on its website. RILA covers 1975-1989 and BHA covers 1990-2007, for a combined database that spans 32  years, and includes a range of fine and applied arts, such as archaeology, architecture, decorative arts, folk and industrial art, photography, prints, drawing, sculpture, theater, and festivals.
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The Getty Library Catalog

The Getty's Library Catalog provides a wider range in materials than BHA and RILA, including articles, books, and images. The library catalog presents those interested in Lebanese photography and history with a host of material on related topics. Users may search for items based on item type, however a search of all items and without the use of quotation marks, for the keywords "Lebanon and photography," retrieves more than 200 items, or "Lebanon and art" returns over 500 items which include topics such as photography, war, and remembrance. The search results will indicate when items are open access, and results may be subsequently narrowed by using the filters on the left-hand side menu.
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For more general art interests, The Getty’s resource guides provide topical overviews of the institute’s collections and subjects within its scope of research.
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History of Art Bibliography: in Open Access (OpenBibArt)
OpenBibArt does not include full-text articles or works, however it does provide  full bibliographical references from the Répertoire d'Art et d'Archéologie and from the Bibliographie d'Histoire de l'Art produced by INIST-CNRS. A search of the database for “Lebanon photography” returns 15 records for related museum exhibitions and scholarly articles. A search for “Lebanon Civil War” produces 14 records to articles. The database is searchable in English and French while titles and abstracts may be in either language, and all other metadata within each record is in French.
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Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA)
Institut du Monde Arabe was founded in 1980 in Paris, France. The museum and library’s websites are available in French, Arabic, and English. The library’s online catalog is the product of a recent modernization project that also included a renovation of the library building. Users may create an account to gain library privileges, including request materials, make purchase suggestions, and access digital resources.

An advanced search for ‘Liban or Lebanon or لبنان’ returns more than 4,000 results:

From the search results page, users may refine their search through the side menu, with options such as collection group, place of publication, format, language, date, and author.
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View a (French only) description of the library’s resources >>
View a description of the museum's collections >>

JURN
JURN is an open access database, enhanced by Google, that allows users to search hundreds of scholarly e-journals in the arts and humanities. A search, without quotes, for “Lebanon photography” returns 10 pages of results.

The JURN directory displays linked titles to the more than 3,000 journals in the database, including a list of titles under the heading, “Visual Arts : photography.”
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Directories and Location Guides

5index
This Lebanese business directory lists 20 museums, complete with maps, written descriptions of their locations, phone number(s), and websites.

American University of Beirut (AUB) LibGuide: Art/Artists
AUB has published a guide to resources about art and artists in Lebanon which includes, among other things, a list of art galleries and museums on the right side of the page; a list of artist associations in the central column under the books; and two directories including LebWeb, described above. Researchers may also find the other resources useful for discovering even more about the Lebanese art scene and its history.

Arab Center for Architecture (ACA)
Founded in Beirut in 2008, the Arab Center for Architecture is a non-profit organization whose goal it is to address modern urban design, architecture, design, and planning in the Arab world. Its Research Center is accessible to the public by appointment, however its database is searchable online without an account. As of the publication of this guide, the library is currently being developed and no online catalog exists but may be available in the near future.

When searching the directory, if users enter no search terms but filter by country, no results are retrieved. Also, searching by city and setting the filter to search by building city will return zero results.

It is best to search by city or architect name without setting filters. A search for “Beirut” lists architects as well as buildings and projects located in the city. Searching for the term “Lebanon” results in a longer list of names than Beirut does, but fewer buildings.

Clicking on an architect’s name will lead to a page with biographical information, including nationality, education, and projects or buildings they were involved in--the projects’ names, locations, and start and end dates.

Clicking on a building will lead to a similar page with information on the architect(s) responsible, building type, construction status and dates, and other notes about the project including building dimensions.
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Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC)
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture was founded in Beirut in 2007 to support artists, writers, research, intellectuals, and arts and culture organizations from the region. Programs now encompass a wide range of cultural work including photography and film, as well as research, training, and cultural events.

AFAC’s Projects list presents users with a catalog of the artists and projects it has funded, including the artists’ names, countries of origin, a brief description of the projects, and an example image.

To view the projects, find the menu in the top-right corner of the website and in the list of options, click on “Projects.”

Entering an artist’s name in the Search bar is one way to find a specific project. Otherwise, limiting the search by country--in the example shown here, “Lebanon” has been selected from the drop-down list, will filter the projects by those artists based in Lebanon who have been awarded grants for their projects. Users may also choose to select a program name, such as The Arab Documentary Photography Program, from another drop-down list. Combining program name with country will limit results further.

Programs of interest, shown here in the order in which they appear on the list, may include:
AFAC Documentary Program
Arab Documentary Film Program
Cinema
The Arab Documentary Photography Program
Visual Arts
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Art in Lebanon
“Art in Lebanon” is a project focused on promoting Lebanese art and artists, online as well as through events and exhibitions. It includes an alphabetical list of galleries and artists’ names, as well as other information.

Association for the Promotion & Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL)
Established in 2016, APEAL organizes exhibitions, workshops, debates, and educational programs. It also provides a directory of artists that is searchable by genre and country.

Countries included in the directory are: Egypt, France, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates--listed in the dropdown both as UAE and United Arab Emirates, and the UK. A search with no keywords or genre specification, but filtering by country “Lebanon,” will return a list of Lebanese photographers, and includes biographical information and websites.

Atlas Obscura: Things to do in Lebanon
Atlas Obscura is a database of interesting places and foods from around the world. Of those, it features a number of culturally significant places throughout Lebanon, including ‘The Egg,’ the iconic unfinished movie theater in Beirut that became a headquarters for the protesters, and where billboard-size images of Revolt hung from November 15, 2019, until late February 2020, serving as a mirror of the protests.

Beirut Center of Photography
The Beirut Center of Photography was established in 2016 in order to promote Middle Eastern and North African photography; they organize exhibitions, workshops, debates, and educational programs.

On the right side of the website there is a menu that includes a calendar of events, links to social media websites, and further down, an option to browse photographs by topic. Topics include Arab identity, Art, Documentary, Lebanon, and more.

The BCP alphabetical Directory provides the opportunity to search images by genre, country, and name or keyword. There is also a form at the bottom to add a photographer’s name to the directory.
Browse Lebanese photographers >>

City Art Guide: Beirut
This article from 2019 provides a descriptive overview of 22 art galleries in Beirut and provides some background information for navigating the artistic side of Beirut.

LebWeb
A directory of Lebanese businesses and organizations, as well as festivals, educational and cultural institutions, and everything else from sporting news resources to political parties. Entries include website as well as phone and address information, when available. Photographers list professionals offering a variety of services, and their studios or galleries.
View the list of photographers >>
View the list of art galleries >>

Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI)
MEPPI is a program, launched in 2009, that aims to raise awareness about the need to preserve the Middle East and North Africa’s cultural heritage. It is led jointly by the Arab Image Foundation, the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Getty Conservation Institute.

The directory lists contact information including web addresses for more than 60 photographic collections from institutions, foundations, museums, universities, and archives located across the Middle East and North Africa. A search by country returns a number of institutions, including the Ministry of Tourism.

Search the MEPPI directory of institutions >>
Read more about MEPPI >>