Emily Jacir, Co-founder and Founding Director of Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research

Emily is an artist whose work—which spans a range of strategies including film, photography, sculpture, interventions, archiving, performance, video, writing, and sound—investigates histories of colonization, exchange, questions of translation, transformation, resistance, and movement.

She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including a Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); a Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Fund in The Hague (2007); the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum (2008); the Alpert Award (2011) from the Herb Alpert Foundation; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2015).

Her recent solo exhibitions include Alexander and Bonin, New York (2018); IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Dublin (2016–17); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Darat al Funun, Amman (2014–15); Beirut Art Center (2010); and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009). Her work has been regularly featured in major international group exhibitions, including at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; dOCUMENTA (13) (2012); five consecutive Venice Biennales; Sharjah Biennial 10 (2011); 29th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2010); 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006); Sharjah Biennial 7 (2005); Whitney Biennial (2004); and 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003).

Emily has been actively involved in education in Palestine since 2000 and is deeply invested in creating alternative spaces of knowledge production. She recently served as curator of the Young Artist of the Year Award 2018 at the A. M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah which she entitled “We Shall be Monsters”. She is one of the founders of the International Academy of Art Palestine in Ramallah and was a full-time professor there from 2007 to 2017 and served on its academic board from 2006 to 2012. Jacir led the inaugural year (2011–12) of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Program in Beirut and created the curriculum and programming; she also served on its curricular committee from 2010 to 2011. Between 1999 and 2002, she curated several Arab and Palestinian film programs in New York City with Alwan for the Arts while also teaching several workshops at Birzeit University. She conceived of and co-curated the first Palestine International Video Festival in Ramallah in 2002. In 2007, she curated a selection of shorts, “Palestinian Revolution Cinema (1968–1982),” which went on tour internationally.

Annemarie Jacir, Co-founder

Annemarie has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. Two of her films have premiered as Official Selections in Cannes, one in Berlin and in Venice, Locarno, and Telluride. All three of her feature films were Palestine's official Oscar entries.

With a commitment to teaching, training and hiring locally, Annemarie also curates and mentors, actively promoting independent cinema in the region. Founder of Philistine Films, she collaborates regularly with fellow filmmakers as an editor, screenwriter and producer.

In 2003, she co-founded the Dreams of a Nation project and organized the largest traveling film festival in Palestine, which included the screening of archival Palestinian revolutionary films screening for the first time on Palestinian soil. She has taught at Columbia, Bethlehem, Birzeit University and in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. In 2011, Chinese director Zhang Yimou selected her to be his first protégée as part of the Rolex Arts Initiative. In 2018, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.

Yusuf Nasri Jacir, Co-founder

Yusuf was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Dar Jacir . He attended primary school at the Freres School in Bethlehem, graduated from Terra Sancta Secondary High School and studied for one year at Bir Zeit College. He taught English to primary school students at the Freres College in Bethlehem for two years.

He then worked in Hebron from 1962 until 1969 for UNRWA as the Area Welfare Officer for the Hebron and Bethlehem districts. In this position, he was in charge of social and welfare activities including supervision of case work; handicapped programs; distribution of food and medical supplies; directing and supervising boys’ youth activities centers and sewing centers for girls as well as after school activities at all those centers: Arroub, Fawwar, Deheisheh, Aida, and Azzeh camps. In this position he supervised case workers, youth leaders, sewing centers instructors and community workers.

The Area Welfare Officer job gave Yusuf the opportunity to travel to the USA for the first time in 1966 as a representative of Jordan to the Chicago International Program for Youth Leaders and Social Workers. After the 1967 Naksa, he worked in Chicago for two years as a social worker and youth advisor for minority children at a community house on Chicago’ s west side and for six years in finance at the Quaker Oats Company. While working full time he put himself through College at the age of 33.

He obtained a BA degree with Honors from Roosevelt University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Yusuf then worked internationally as a financial controller in Saudi Arabia for multiple companies owned by the Mawarid Group among many others. He is currently a consultant and financial advisor in Riyadh and is serving as Treasurer and Board Member of the Advanced Learning School in Riyadh. He was a member of the American Business Group Board in Riyadh from 1990 to 1998.

Aline Khoury, Production Manager

Aline Khoury is a cultural producer and researcher living and working in Jerusalem, Palestine. Aline has worked for several years in putting on exhibitions and public programs at Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, focusing on developing its vision, promoting Palestinian art and engaging local communities. She was involved in several local networks, including Qalandiya International and Shafaq Jerusalem Arts Network, and is currently a regional facilitator in Arts Collaboratory, a translocal ecosystem of twenty-five socially-engaged arts organizations. The former experience has guided Aline to investigate and explore new ways of working and collaborating amongst art practitioners. She also researches and writes about Palestinian Art from the early twentieth century. She studied History of Art and Social-Anthropology (B.A) in Jerusalem, and Aural & Visual Cultures (M.A.) in Goldsmiths University, London.

Motasem Al-Ghnimat, Project Coordinator

Motasem was born in the occupied West Bank in 1988, he lives and works in Bethlehem. He studied Project Management at Palestine Polytechnic University. He has worked in several local and international organization in the last 10 years.

Motasem has a proactive and dynamic personality makes him a motivated and enthusiastic individual, who enjoys working and learning in challenging environments. He is a results-oriented person who feels comfortable working as part of a team as well as independently to ensures that all project completed on time and satisfactorily. Furthermore, he speaks Arabic, English and Spanish.

Samer Al-Barbari, Custodian/Groundskeeper/Chef

Samer grew up across the street from Dar Jacir and is really excited to be part of the development in it becoming a space for art and education and research. His interest in Agriculture began at the University of IPEC in Brazil, where he got his diploma in "Agricultural engineering, plant and animal production". After that, he returned to Palestine and worked for the Catholic Relief Services "CRS" in the rural areas of Bethlehem and Hebron teaching women about home gardening. He has also worked for over eight years at a number of institutions in the Bethlehem area as maintenance, house-keeping, chef and receptionist. He speaks Arabic, English, Hebrew and Portuguese

Susanna Gonzo, Intern

Susanna is an Italian major linguist who recently graduated at the University of Potsdam, Germany. She previously studied linguistics and literature at the University of Verona, Italy. She speaks five languages. She is concerned with writing, translation, education and teaching. Her research interests focus on language and migration, identity, postcolonial studies and feminism. She was involved in educational projects in Italy and in Jerusalem. She is now living between Betlehem and Jerusalem.

Hassan Muamer, Site Engineer

Environmental and civil engineer, Hassan Muamer, is one of Palestine's leading environmental advocates. Born in 1985 in the village of Battir, Hassan believes that "personal attitude is the key to success." With perseverance and optimism, he has dedicated the last few years to the fight to save his village from the Israeli separation wall that is set to cut right through Battir's ancient terraces ending a centuries-old agricultural tradition. He speaks Arabic, English and Hebrew.

Advisory Council:

Abdelfattah Abusrour, Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, Jorge Tacla, Sari Khoury, Khaled Hourani, George Al'ama, Dyala Husseini

Featured Project:

A Strong, Safe And Sound Structure