The Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum, located in the Lebanese town of Bsharri, is celebrating a grant provided by Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah, to restore and renovate the museum.
The grant will be used to preserve the museum’s possessions, and restore artifacts including photos, manuscripts, tools, books, and paintings, as well as equipping it with the latest museum display technologies.
The grant was announced after talks and negotiations that ran over the past year between Lebanon and Sharjah to determine the works that will be implemented, and the projects in which this grant will be invested amid the hard circumstances that the country and the museum are living following the pandemic’s lockdowns and the economic collapse that heavily affected the cultural life in Lebanon.
The agreement was signed last week, on the sidelines of the opening of the Sharjah International Book Fair, by Joseph Fenianos, head of the museum’s committee, and Marwa Obaid Al Aqroubi, director of the House of Wisdom affiliated with the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, to implement renovation, restoration, and development projects at the Gibran Khalil Gibran Museum within five years.
The agreement consists of developing the museum, and printing Gibran Khalil Gibran’s books.
Attending the Sharjah book fair, Joseph Fenianos met with Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah, and gifted him a figurine of the late Lebanese writer sculpted by Artist Rudy Rahme.
Joseph Geagea, manager of the Gibran Museum in Bsharri, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The contact between the two parties is not new. An esteemed exhibition about Gibran was held in Sharjah in 2015. Another one took place on the occasion of the House of Wisdom opening from September 2021 till January 2022, for which we shipped many paintings, the atelier of Gibran and his brushes, and an important collection of manuscripts that we displayed there.
“The opening was supposed to be attended by Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, but later, we knew that the Ruler of Sharjah would attend too. First, we thought the ruler would pass by for a few minutes, but surprisingly, our meeting with him lasted for 55 minutes, during which he seemed so interested in Gibran and his literature. As a tribute, the Ruler of Sharjah directed to provide a grant for the Gibran Museum.”
Few days ago, the head of the museum’s committee traveled to Sharjah to sign the agreement.
“We knew a grant has been provided to the museum, so we set a list of the works we need, including printing Gibran’s books, in addition to improving, developing, and mechanizing the information center dedicated for the visitors. The most important project is probably changing some of the old presentations that visitors have seen for many years. We have 440 paintings drawn by Gibran with water colors, charcoal, and pastels, but only 150 works are currently displayed, which means there are around 300 paintings hidden because we are not able to display them. What we want is to improve the work at the museum, so visitors keep coming and see new works every time. At our museum, we have the world’s largest collection of Gibran’s paintings,” Geagea told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Gibran Museum team presented five projects to develop the museum in Bsharri, and they were all approved.
“Hopefully, we will manage to preserve the heritage of Gibran, and present it to the Arab people and the world in the best way. We will protect this unique history for humanity. Gibran is not an Arabic writer, he’s international,” added Geagea.
Gibran Khalil Gibran is still the third most read novelist in the world, following Shakespeare, and the Chinese philosopher Laozi. His book, “The Prophet” was translated into 130 languages with several translations in each language; it has 17 different translations into German, 20 into French, and around six into Chinese.
Foreign embassies have always shown special interest in the Gibran Museum. The Japanese embassy in Beirut has recently provided a grant, and the Bulgarian embassy restored the personal library of the late novelist. However, the Arabic interest in the museum of a Lebanese, Arabic novelist remains the most special, and has a unique significance.
