MENA Arts UK to close

MENA Arts UK, set up for UK-based professionals connected to the MENA+ region (Middle East, North Africa and the surrounding area), during the first Covid lockdown, is to close.

The volunteer-led organisation emerged as a collective voice for people with connections to the region, beginning as a directory of talent working in the UK live and recorded arts.

It grew into a fortnightly newsletter featuring "job opportunities, shout-outs and industry news", before starting a writers' group and organising screenings, discussions and networking events.

A statement from the organisation said it had for some time been grappling with its own relevance and ability to deliver on its mission, and it was now time to "stop and take stock". 

The statement continued: "We have found it very hard to make the necessary structural changes while still delivering our day-to-day activities.

"There is only so much depth you can go into when your time to think and have difficult conversations is borrowed from commutes, lunch breaks, bedtimes and weekends.

"If we continue on our current path, we will simply be tinkering endlessly around the edges when we desire a radical overhaul."