asmaa benachir

Manager, Project Manager, coordinator, and consultant in various artistic and cultural projects, as well as projects that relate to sustainable development, empowerment, and climate change, at national and international levels.

As I am passionate about art and cultural exchange, in the framework of sustainable development and climate change, I am always searching for innovative approaches that generate positive solutions to address complex situations and challenges. In my opinion, this is a crucial step that enables the sustainable development of high-impact projects over time.

Following to participation in 2014 in the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department, I founded the Artisania café-theater in Salé, an artistic platform for training and social integration of youth. With the participation of established national and international artists and professionals, we developed a rich multicultural program that included a literary café, theater, art gallery, music stage, theme events, and TV show sets developed in partnership with national television channels.
In 2008, I founded the art and cultural social enterprise called “Au Grain de Sésame” AGS, which quickly became a central place of cultural activity in Rabat. We have collaborated with prestigious Moroccan and American universities and institutions and welcomed large numbers of Moroccans, international and, expatriates’ visitors. I successfully launched several projects: an art and crafts gallery, a literary café, an ecological design training program (Empowering women through art and cultural exchange), a cultural exchange program (Rabat Cultural Exchange), and a weekly event (Marché EcoBio). Meanwhile, I have participated in international events including an exhibition at the Workshop Museum in Philadelphia (2015), COP 22 in Marrakech (2016), New York Now exhibition (2017), a presentation at the Rhode Island School of Design (2018), and the Climate Workshop in Amsterdam (2019).

In 2013, AGS received the SEED prize, a United Nations Initiative for the Environment.
In September 2014, I received the first award from the Museum Connect Project organized by the American Museum Association (AMA) and supported by the U.S. State Department for Cooperation and Education, for a cross-cultural art exchange program that involves both US and Moroccan Student, as well as marginalized women from New York and Rabat.

From 2016 to 2017, I joined as a consultant the UNIDO (United Nations Organization for Industrial Development) REVIS Project, which worked with artisans from the northeastern region of Morocco to develop training in product design, quality control, and market access.

Thanks to these successful experiences, and the work I have done on the ground, I become aware of the necessary use of new technologies, in the process of artistic creation to face the demand of the growing global market. Also, I strongly believe that the art supported by new technologies can be used as a powerful tool in development and research for new ecological and sustainable artistic products, but also in human capital development and thus contributing to sustainable socio-economic development.

The AGS training program is very committed to designing and delivering eco-friendly arts training programs to further empower communities and contribute to sustainable socio-economic development. We are currently considering the use consider the integration of new technologies for educational purposes, and also into the process of developing sustainable, ecological products that promote the socio-economic integration of the beneficiaries in the context of sustainable development, climate issue, and the respect of human values.

This is my new challenge