ElMadina Arts

ElMadina Arts for Performing & Digital Arts LLC is an Alexandria-based Egyptian cultural organisation founded in 2000. We work at the intersection of performing arts, social theatre, participatory facilitation, cultural programming and public-space practice. Our work connects residents, artists, cultural practitioners and local stakeholders around questions of place, voice, belonging, power relations and collective action.

ElMadina has extensive experience in using arts-based methods for community listening, storytelling, place reading, dialogue and co-design. Our previous work in Karmouz, Alexandria, included street-based storytelling, engagement with residents, documentation of local stories and activities, and the co-creation of a cultural map and neighbourhood guide. Related public presentations made residents’ narratives, skills and perspectives visible and used public and semi-public spaces as settings for dialogue, imagination and collective learning.

For HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-PARTICIPATION-02, ElMadina can contribute an Alexandria neighbourhood demonstrator and lead its cultural and community co-design component. Our potential contribution includes mapping users and patterns of public-space use, engaging diverse and less-heard residents, translating lived experience into creative scenarios and spatial narratives, and testing ideas through performances, walks, cultural activations and temporary public-space interventions.

We can work with architects, urban planners, municipalities, researchers, accessibility specialists and climate experts to ensure that resident perspectives meaningfully inform spatial decisions. We can also document changes in participation, belonging, ownership, safety and patterns of public-space use, while contributing Arabic-language materials and a Southern Mediterranean perspective to comparative learning across demonstration sites.

We are seeking a consortium where ElMadina has a substantive and clearly budgeted role as an Alexandria demonstrator or as a task lead within a work package on community participation, cultural co-design and public-space experimentation.

Egypt is an Associated Country to Horizon Europe. ElMadina Arts is registered on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal under PIC 948496750.