On 18th of June, Freemuse's partner organization, the Samir Kassir Foundation held a conference entitled "Culture in Times of Crisis"; 

Freemuse's Project Manager Noor Obeid moderated the panel "Turning policy ideas into action"  with the participation of the three researchers who published the policy papers in the context of the project “Modernizing Cultural Policy-making in Lebanon”, a partnership between the Samir Kassir Foundation and the Friederich Naumann Foundation: Nicole Hamouche, Areej Abou Harb, Hicham Zeineiddine and the legal advisor Layal Sakr, co-founder of Seeds for Legal Initiatives.

"One of the most challenging issues in Lebanon is the absence of any public cultural policy, which is in itself a policy. Today more than ever we should think about the importance of cultural spaces for the economy, an approach that is overlooked when thinking about cultural production and policies", said Areej Abou Harb, Culture Resource programs manager and researcher during the event