OPEN CALL: Beirut Legal Clinic for Artists

Beirut Art Center is launching the Beirut Legal Clinic for Artists, a new initiative developed in collaboration with Lily Abichahine and supported by seed funding from AFAC.

The Clinic is being developed as a free, accessible legal resource for artists and cultural practitioners in Lebanon. Its first stage will focus on identifying the legal questions and challenges that emerge across artistic practices, and building a resource around the realities of the cultural sector.

We are inviting artists and cultural practitioners to contribute their experiences, questions and knowledge to this process.

Have you encountered a legal challenge in your practice?
Are there parts of a contract, copyright or licensing agreement you have struggled to understand?
Have you dealt with questions around authorship, publishing, production, labour, censorship, taxation or institutional relationships?
Have you encountered a situation that you think other artists could learn from?

These experiences are the starting point for building a legal resource that responds to the sector’s actual needs.

Contributions will feed into a two-day series of discussions and roundtables at Beirut Art Center on 27–28 October 2026, bringing artists and cultural practitioners into conversation with legal professionals and cultural sector representatives.

The discussions will be used to:

• Identify recurring legal challenges across artistic disciplines
• Map existing legal resources and gaps
• Document questions that arise repeatedly in cultural practice
• Develop practical resources and guidance for artists and cultural organisations
• Establish the priorities and structure of the Clinic’s first six-month edition

The Clinic is intended as an evolving, participatory resource, one shaped by the questions and experiences of the community it serves.

Who can contribute?

Artists and cultural practitioners working across disciplines and fields of practice in Lebanon.

You do not need to have a legal background, and you do not need to arrive with a fully defined legal case. A question, uncertainty, experience or recurring issue is enough to start the conversation.