Calgary Arab Arts and Culture Society
Our Story
The Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society (CAA&CS) has been organizing the Calgary Arab Film Nights Festival since 2013. For the past years, the festival has been growing and attracting different forms of arts and stakeholders who want to savor a piece of Arab culture. As the festival grew, the society started bringing more artistic productions.
Also, CAA&CS organized standalone events that brought poetry and provided the stage for rising talents in the community, like Dr. Ghada Al-Atrash, after releasing her new book “Stripped to the Bone: Portraits of Syrian Women”. CAA&CS also organized “Popcorn & Skype” events where the audience watched Arabic movies and chatted with the filmmakers. Distinguished speakers were accordingly invited to initiate conversations and dialogues with our festival audience, such as Luke Azevedo, Southern Alberta Film Commissioner this event gave voice to artists through old topics such as, 2SLGBTQ+ in the Arab world, Arab Jews, and Hijab.
By 2017, the Calgary Arab Film Festival expanded its offering by adding an extra night, calling it “Canadian Eye on the Arab World”, which showcased Canadian productions depicting Arab related issues. That led to the Cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada in screening “Things Arab Men Say” and “Arab Women Say What?!” by the Edmonton filmmaker, Nesreen Baqer.
Since 2023, the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society acted upon Canada’s recognition of April as the “Arab Heritage Month” and organized an annual celebration that invited the community to celebrate with Canadian Arab artists, as well as cultural brokers and Canadian politicians from Ara origins to learn about the richness and diversity or Arab culture and how it adds to the Canadian mosaic.
For all these successes, the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society decided to transform from a working board and initiate an administrative body to take care of increasing activities and repertoire. With this transformation, the Society issued its Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Statement/Policy, and started drifting towards institutional funding, which reached fruition in 2024 with support from the Calgary Arts Development, The City of Calgary, The Government of Alberta and Heritage Canada.
Our Vision
CAACS’s vision is anchored in the belief that arts have the power to evoke emotions, provoke thought, and promote empathy.
Our Mission
CAACS envisions a diversified arts scene in Canada in which Arab-themed arts have the opportunity, space and resources to tell a different story, the power to build bridges, deepen relationships, and accordingly advance a more equitable society.