Find creative inspiration at Spring Festival in Beirut, Tunis

The seventh edition of Spring Festival, organized by prominent Arab cultural organization Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy (Cultural Resource), will be held simultaneously in Beirut and Tunis between April 28 and May 26.

The festival, one of Al-Thaqafy's multiple initiatives to nurture the art in the Arab World, is a biannual event that holds performances celebrating a wide variety of art forms and enables cultural exchange between Arab artists and their international counterparts.

It specifically focuses on the artists whose works present new definitions for the concept of art, in a quest for innovation. The festival aims to "shed light on unconventional forms of art, and probe into the possibilities of interrelation between different cultures," according to Al-Mawred's official website .

In line with that goal, this year's edition will showcase a "globally diverse" line-up, featuring artists from Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Palestine, Mali, Syria and China.

The seventh Spring Festival is dedicated to Tunisian stage pioneer Ezzeddine Gannoun, who died in March of 2015. The prominent stage director and playwright was one of the most influential figures in the Tunisian arts scene, he founded the first Arab and African center for the study of stage production.

In addition to the tribute, the 2016 festival will present three showcases, titled Tazamon, Abbara and Red Zone. Tazamon will present the works of the artists who are supported by Al-Mawred’s several artistic grants and programs, which are aimed at nurturing regional talents.

Abbara will feature cultural organizations which have proven to have made positive influences on their communities through their artistic contributions, while Red Zone will feature works dealing with the theme of freedom of artistic expression and its associated issues.

Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy was founded in 2004 in an effort to support artistic creativity in the Arab World and facilitate cultural exchange between its artists and international creators.

Its initiatives stem from a "deep appreciation of the renewable value of Arab cultural heritage, in all its ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity, and from a faith in the importance of generating a new Arab spirit of creativity as a key to liberating the imagination and stimulating progress," according to Al-Mawred.