Biography
Christine Tohme is the Founding Director of Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, which was established in 1993. Ashkal Alwan is a non-profit organisation that supports contemporary artistic and cultural practices through numerous initiatives, including the multidisciplinary platform Home Works: A Forum of Cultural Practices, initiated by Tohme in 2001, and the Home Workspace Program, a tuition-free interdisciplinary study programme founded in 2011. Home Works 8: A Forum on Cultural Practices opened in October 2019.
Tohme curated Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (2017), which comprised exhibitions and a public programme in two acts in Sharjah and Beirut; a year-long education programme in Sharjah; projects in Dakar, Ramallah, Istanbul and Beirut; and an online publishing platform. She is on the boards of Marsa, a sexual health centre in Beirut that provides specialised medical services for at-risk youth and marginalised communities, and SAHA, an association in Istanbul that supports contemporary art from Turkey.
She has received the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture (2018); CCS Bard Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence (2015) and a Prince Claus Award (2006), given in recognition of her achievements in supporting local art production and criticism.
Tohme was born in Beirut, where she continues to live and work.
SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennials 13 and 15
March Meetings 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021
