Opened on September 22nd 2018  Under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Saad Hariri.

On the coast of the Mediterranean in North Lebanon at Ras ach-Chaq’a or Theoprosopon of classical times, in the village of El Heri, stands the Nabu Museum. Named after the Mesopotamianpatron god of literacy, the museum offers an exceptional permanent collection of early Bronze and Iron Age artifacts, antiquities from the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Phoenician andMesopotamian epochs, rare manuscripts and ethnographic material.

The museum’s collectionalso includes examples of local and regional modern and contemporary art by key artists suchas Amin al-Bacha, Adam Henein, Dia Azzawi, Helen Khal, Omar Onsi, Mustapha Farroukh,Ismail Fattah, Khalil Gibran, Paul Guiragossian, Ahmad Moualla, Shafic Abboud, Rafic Charaf,Mustafa Ali, Shakir Hassan al-Said. In addition, there is an exceptional collection of works bySaliba Douaihy. covering all phases from the early 1930s until his death in 1994.

Notable inthe Nabu’s collection is a unique selection of Cuneiform tablets and Phoenician stelae datingfrom 2330 to 540 B.C.E that recount epic tales, give indications of other economic systems,information on ethnic groups and maps of ancient cities.

The museum also holds an extensive collection of 19th and early 20th century photographs and postcards. The library houses bookson art, archaeology, history, geography, and a collection of rare manuscripts. In a region of

seemingly constant turmoil and strife, Nabu Museum is a space for art and an institution for preserving and enhancing culture reaching out to communities through educational programs,organized tours, public lectures and guided exhibitions. We aim to produce and encourage art practices in the region and to reflect on our contemporary realities. By providing a platform forencounter and cultural exchange and by supporting local art production we hope to challenge various audiences in new and unexpected ways.

The Nabu Museum: a unique archeological collection The arts of bronze, glass and ceramics, are largely represented. Amongst many master pieces is an elegant votive roman statuette representing Venus, ornamented with golden bracelets,

an exceptional roman glass blown carafe in shape of grapes, as well as rare terracotta votive Phoenician statues. Stone artifacts also make up a big part of the collection.

There is a notable collection of eye idols as well as funerary stelae from the Sour, Palmyra and the Arabic peninsula,

most notably a spectacular low relief funerary bust of Palmyran provenance. Stimulating and didactic confrontations between art of the past and recent creations, in the aim of highlighting that behind the imperative for rupture, which is the foundation of contemporary art, a thread connects all forms of creation. Hence, artists like Ismail Fattah, Shaker Hassan Al Said and Dia Azzawi are pioneers of the modern Iraqi movement, have filled the gap between modernityand cultural heritage establishing a new aesthetic language for Arab art. An example of a work shedding light of this connection is the work of Dia Azzawi, inspired by the epic of Gilgamesh, representing “Ashtar’, goddess symbolizing the female gender, of love and war like that of Eros

and Thanatos.

Referance: Nabu Museum Website link :https://www.nabumuseum.com/home/

 

The building of exceptional design, and view from the new museum in el Heri area in the North. Visited today within the program of Art week in Beirut.
Nabu, a museum built by Mr. and Mrs. Jawad Adra, in collaboration with the great artist Dia Azzawi, Mahmoud El Obaidi museum specialist, and Badr el Hage Historian and artist.

The new concept of Nabu museum is that takes the viewer on a interactive journey between the past and present in search of diagnoses and solutions in the same way our vision moves back and forth between near and far.