Vision:
Communities where cultural diversity shapes inclusive public spaces, heritage is actively preserved, and individuals are encouraged to engage in creative practice, dialogue, and shared expression.
Mission:
Tilwan supports art, culture, and education as tools for peace and community transformation — with a strong focus on preserving heritage and fostering creative expression in all its forms.
Our Values:
- • Freedom of expression
- • Cultural inclusivity
- • Artistic diversity
- • Social creativity
- • Innovation through heritage
What We Do:
- • Run training and awareness campaigns for artists and youth
- • Support the development of national art education frameworks and curricula
- • Promote artistic dialogue between Libya and its neighbouring communities
Our Story:
Founded in Tripoli, Tilwan emerged in response to the critical absence of cultural infrastructure and creative platforms in post-conflict Libya. Today, we operate across multiple arts and ethnic communities in Libya. We aspire to build cultural partnerships throughout the Mediterranean region.
Who We Serve:
- • Youth and emerging artists
- • Ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups
- • School-aged children and educators
- • Women and girls, including adolescents
- • Academics and researchers
- • Heritage professionals and cultural practitioners
PROGRAMMES
At Tilwan, we recognise creativity and cultural identity as catalysts for social transformation and resilience. Our programmes are designed to empower artists, advance formal arts education, and safeguard both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Libya, including its artistic memory, visual traditions, and community practices. Rooted in local needs and contexts, our initiatives also promote transnational dialogue, intercultural exchange, and the reactivation of heritage as a living, evolving resource.
Each initiative aligns with one of three core areas:
CROSS-CUTTING THEMES
All Tilwan programmes are rooted in a values-based approach and integrate the following cross-cutting themes to ensure long-term impact and inclusive participation:
Community Ownership
Promoting participatory design and decision-making that centres local knowledge, fosters civic engagement, and ensures sustainability through collective responsibility.
Youth Participation
Engaging young people as active agents of change—through education, mentorship, and artistic leadership—to shape the cultural future of their communities.
Women's Empowerment & Inclusion
Ensuring gender-sensitive approaches that elevate the voices and contributions of women and girls across all creative and cultural activities.
Digitisation & Innovation
Embracing technology and creative tools to document, share, and preserve cultural heritage, while promoting new forms of artistic expression and digital access.
PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES
Clothes of Libya – Libasuna
Libasuna shines light on Libya’s rich clothing traditions, celebrating our cultural diversity and shared heritage. The project documents traditional garments through photography and contextual information, and presents highlights to audiences in Libya and abroad.
With visual documentation at its core, our project seeks to weave in reflections on the historical, social and economic aspects of Libyan dress and dressmaking.
We first worked on this subject in 2020 in collaboration with heritage experts and a photographer, who produced beautiful images of traditional outfits – including historical pieces – from various parts of Libya.
Five years on and with new funding, we are now able to build on this foundation to create informative and engaging content for our audiences. As Libasuna progresses, we will be communicating on project activities and events. Stay tuned to the Tilwan website and Facebook page!
Update: 15 June 2025
For more information, please contact the project director:
Valerie Stocker – valerie@tilwan.org
Libasuna is a phased project. The first phase was supported by the Goethe-Institut in 2020. The current second phase is funded by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.
Calligraphy and Beyond
Blending Cultures Through Letters and Lines – A Creative Exchange from Southern Libya
Calligraphy and Beyond is a cultural art exchange initiative launched by Tilwan for Culture, Art and Heritage in 2025, aiming to empower youth and women, promote peacebuilding, and celebrate diversity through creative expression.
This project explores the intersection of traditional calligraphy and cultural identity, encouraging young artists to move beyond classical forms and towards mixed-culture visual storytelling. Participants use Arabic letters alongside local symbols, scripts, and languages—including Tifnagh and Hausa—to create unique artworks that reflect both personal and collective narratives.
Calligraphy and Beyond is a dialogue in art. It invites emerging artists to express their heritage, explore their identities, and contribute to social cohesion through creativity.
For inquiries, please contact the team at: info@tilwan.org / zuhair@tilwan.org
Update: 15 June 2025
Reimagining Art Education in Libya
رأس خيط – Bring to Light
Bring to Light (Raas Kheit) marks Tilwan’s first step toward shaping a long-term vision for art education in Libya—one of our key focus areas.
Through this initiative, we explored the current realities of art and music education by engaging in problem-solving—bringing together educators, artists, and cultural actors to rethink how creative education can be more inclusive, impactful, and future-oriented in a three-day IdeaLab. The approach centered on dialogue, reflection, and collective action.
This project laid the groundwork for a broader strategy that Tilwan is developing to advance context-driven, interdisciplinary art education as a core pillar of cultural development in Libya. The initiative advocates for art education not merely as a creative outlet, but as a transformative force—nurturing critical thinking, fostering cultural continuity, and enabling youth and communities to engage meaningfully with their social and historical realities.
Clothes of Libya – Libasuna
A participatory documentation initiative celebrating and digitising Tripoli’s visual heritage
Tripoli’s Little Details (TLD) is a multidisciplinary cultural initiative dedicated to documenting, digitising, and re-activating the rich yet under-recorded visual heritage of Tripoli’s old city. Through a combination of training workshops, field research, and a public showcase event, the project brings to light the intricate motifs, zellige, inscriptions, and architectural patterns that shape the city’s unique visual identity, and ensures their preservation in accessible digital formats.
TLD places digitisation at the centre of its methodology. By training students, emerging practitioners, and cultural professionals in surveying, redrawing, and digital classification techniques, the project transforms fragile visual elements into a sustainable digital archive that can support research, education, and creative reuse.
Through its three core stages—participation & training, documentation & digitising, and awareness-raising & showcasing—TLD not only preserves vulnerable heritage elements but also repositions them within contemporary cultural dialogues. The initiative encourages creative entrepreneurs, designers, and architects to draw inspiration from these digital resources.
Ultimately, TLD contributes to Tilwan’s commitment to democratising access to cultural knowledge, expanding research resources, and activating community-driven heritage preservation across Libya.
Calligraphy and Beyond
Blending Cultures Through Letters and Lines – A Creative Exchange from Southern Libya
Calligraphy and Beyond is a cultural art exchange initiative launched by Tilwan for Culture, Art and Heritage in 2025, aiming to empower youth and women, promote peacebuilding, and celebrate diversity through creative expression.
This project explores the intersection of traditional calligraphy and cultural identity, encouraging young artists to move beyond classical forms and towards mixed-culture visual storytelling. Participants use Arabic letters alongside local symbols, scripts, and languages—including Tifnagh and Hausa—to create unique artworks that reflect both personal and collective narratives.
Calligraphy and Beyond is a dialogue in art. It invites emerging artists to express their heritage, explore their identities, and contribute to social cohesion through creativity.
For inquiries, please contact the team at: info@tilwan.org / zuhair@tilwan.org
Update: 15 June 2025
Reimagining Art Education in Libya
رأس خيط – Bring to Light
Bring to Light (Raas Kheit) marks Tilwan's first step toward shaping a long-term vision for art education in Libya—one of our key focus areas.
Through this initiative, we explored the current realities of art and music education by engaging in problem-solving—bringing together educators, artists, and cultural actors to rethink how creative education can be more inclusive, impactful, and future-oriented in a three-day IdeaLab. The approach centered on dialogue, reflection, and collective action.
This project laid the groundwork for a broader strategy that Tilwan is developing to advance context-driven, interdisciplinary art education as a core pillar of cultural development in Libya. The initiative advocates for art education not merely as a creative outlet, but as a transformative force—nurturing critical thinking, fostering cultural continuity, and enabling youth and communities to engage meaningfully with their social and historical realities.
Tripoli's Little Details – TLD
A participatory documentation initiative celebrating and digitising Tripoli's visual heritage
Tripoli's Little Details (TLD) is a multidisciplinary cultural initiative dedicated to documenting, digitising, and re-activating the rich yet under-recorded visual heritage of Tripoli's old city. Through a combination of training workshops, field research, and a public showcase event, the project brings to light the intricate motifs, zellige, inscriptions, and architectural patterns that shape the city's unique visual identity, and ensures their preservation in accessible digital formats.
TLD places digitisation at the centre of its methodology. By training students, emerging practitioners, and cultural professionals in surveying, redrawing, and digital classification techniques, the project transforms fragile visual elements into a sustainable digital archive that can support research, education, and creative reuse.
Through its three core stages—participation & training, documentation & digitising, and awareness-raising & showcasing—TLD not only preserves vulnerable heritage elements but also repositions them within contemporary cultural dialogues. The initiative encourages creative entrepreneurs, designers, and architects to draw inspiration from these digital resources.
Ultimately, TLD contributes to Tilwan's commitment to democratising access to cultural knowledge, expanding research resources, and activating community-driven heritage preservation across Libya.
