Helen Zughaib

Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, living in the Middle East and Europe before coming to study at Syracuse University, earning her BFA from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her paintings are in public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate in Vancouver, American Embassy in Iraq, Arab American National Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Barjeel Art Foundation and DC Art Bank. She received the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship award each year since 2015. Her work has been in Art in Embassy exhibitions in Abu Dhabi, Brunei, Nicaragua, Mauritius, Iraq, Belgium, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. She served as Cultural Envoy to Palestine, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. Her paintings have been gifted to heads of state by President Obama and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The John F. Kennedy Center/REACH, selected Helen for the 2021-2024 Inaugural Social Impact Practice residency.

Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, living in the Middle East and Europe before coming to study at Syracuse University, earning her BFA from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her paintings are in public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate in Vancouver, American Embassy in Iraq, Arab American National Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Barjeel Art Foundation and DC Art Bank. She received the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship award each year since 2015. Her work has been in Art in Embassy exhibitions in Abu Dhabi, Brunei, Nicaragua, Mauritius, Iraq, Belgium, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. She served as Cultural Envoy to Palestine, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. Her paintings have been gifted to heads of state by President Obama and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The John F. Kennedy Center/REACH, selected Helen for the 2021-2024 Inaugural Social Impact Practice residency.

Orna Ben-Ami

Orna Ben-Ami is an Israeli artist who joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1971 and became the first female military correspondent for the Army Radio station. Following her military service, she was a reporter and news editor for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority radio station and enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she studied International Relations and History.

Currently based in Israel, Ben-Ami transitioned from working with words to working with materials when she began learning gold and silversmith at the Jerusalem Technological Center. Between 1990 and 1992, she studied sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art located in Washington, D.C., and then continued her studies in Art History at Tel Aviv University. Since 1994, Ben-Ami has been engaged in sculpting and uses iron as the main raw material for her artistic expression.

Ben-Ami has had solo exhibitions in museums all around the U.S., as well as in galleries and museums in Israel, Italy, France, Taiwan, and Mexico. In addition, forty of her outdoor sculptures are placed in public spaces in Israel and Germany. Shimon Peres, the late President of the State of Israel wrote: “Orna, you prove that there is nothing softer than iron, and nothing stronger than a woman.”

Sebastian Rich

Sebastian Rich has been a photographer /cameraman in hard news, documentary and current affairs all his working life.  He joined Independent Television News (UK) in 1980 and developed a gift for being in the right place at the right time on some of the world’s biggest breaking news stories; he gained a reputation, not just as an uncompromising cameraman in the theatre of war, but also as an insightful and highly talented photographer. Jon Snow, the highly regarded British television journalist, describes Sebastian as “Probably the finest news cameraman and photographer of his time… his camera work is amongst the most sensitive I have ever witnessed.” NBC News calls Sebastian “The consummate professional, a seasoned veteran combat photographer."

He received high acclaim and an award from the ‘Rory Peck Foundation’ for his work with U.S. Marine bomb disposal teams in Afghanistan. Sebastian was honoured with the prestigious Royal Television Society’s Cameraman of the Year award for his dramatic pictures of war and famine throughout Africa.

During his career Sebastian has filmed and photographed every major war and conflict: El Salvador, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Iran Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, The Gulf, Bosnia, Palestine, Iraq, Syria Ukraine the list goes on. He has been wounded several times and was kidnapped and held hostage while on assignment in Beirut.

http://www.sebastianrichphotography.com

Senka Ibrišimbegović

Senka Ibrišimbegović was born in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She attended high school in Switzerland and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sarajevo. During her studies, she participated in educational programs at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA in 2001, Vienna University, and TU Wien in 2003. She completed her postgraduate studies in Italy in collaboration with Università di Siena, Politecnico di Milano, IUAV di Venezia, Università di Roma - La Sapienza. In 2004, she successfully defended her master's thesis titled "MUSEUM DISTRICT CULTURAL-M1 MuseumOne." That same year, she began her engagement at the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo, working on the architectural project designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, as well as on exhibition setups, such as the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and the 58th Venice Biennale as the commissioner of the Bosnia and Herzegovina pavilion.

Since January 2008, she has been working at the Faculty of Architecture, and from 2024, she is an associate professor at the Department of Architectural Design. She has participated in numerous international scientific and professional conferences, symposiums, and scientific and professional projects. In May 2014, she conducted doctoral research in Paris at the University of Paris 8. She earned her Ph.D. with a thesis titled "The Architecture of Contemporary Art Museums as a Time Capsule."
In addition to her academic career, as the director of the Public Institution "City Museums" Sarajevo, she is dedicated to promoting and working in museums as cultural institutions in Sarajevo, with a focus on the construction of the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo, which is expected to begin at the end of 2024. She is married and the mother of two children, a daughter named Emina and a son named Ishak.