AUDIENCE MATTERS
FROM AUDIENCE TO CUSTODIAN
Traditional museums preserve heritage as objects: textiles, manuscripts, ceramics, photographs. Fragments Theatre preserves heritage as practice— oral tradition, storytelling, lived experience, collective memory enacted on stage.
“ When we perform heritage stories, oral traditions, and lived experiences,” Arqawi explains,“ we create a space where people can remember their history and identity.”
The process is deliberate: participants research family histories, interview elders, collect heritage stories and songs, then use theater exercises and improvisation to transform these materials into performances. One collaboration with Opera Lab in Amsterdam saw women collecting Palestinian heritage stories to share internationally. Another production positioned young participants as co-creators who shaped scripts and decided what messages to share. These are not educational programs about heritage— they are heritage-making processes where young people become active custodians of cultural memory.
THE FIELD LAB OF BELONGING
Museums create belonging through representation— seeing one’ s culture reflected in institutional collections. Community arts spaces create belonging through participation— being part of the process that makes culture visible.
When Fragments Theatre acquired its space in 2018 with no renovation funds, young people designed and built the theater themselves using recycled materials.“ They felt it is their home, not only a place to attend activities,” Arqawi notes.
Many participants describe the theater as a space of“ safety, freedom, and family”— language that reveals how community cultural spaces function differently from formal museums. Museums offer knowledge and historical understanding. Community arts spaces offer identity formation, psychosocial support, and cultural agency.
RESILIENCE AND CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Since 2021, Jenin has faced continuous military raids, attacks, and instability. Under these conditions, cultural work becomes survival work. Fragments Theatre integrates psychosocial resilience into its programming— staff receive wellbeing training, and young participants help children cope with trauma through creative activities.
The institution also converts cultural participation into livelihood. Photography participants have opened studios. Four participants became professional actors and storytellers. Stop-motion animation trainees now work as trainers elsewhere. Recycling project participants have launched businesses. This is cultural infrastructure at the community level: not just preserving heritage but building the human capacity that sustains cultural ecosystems.
COMPLEMENTING TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS
“ Participants actively create heritage,” Arqawi explains.“ They perform, tell stories, make art, experiment with ideas. This handson engagement allows them to understand culture in a personal and emotional way— and encourages them to take ownership of their identity.”
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