The Curators
Faten Nastas Mitwasi
Faten was born and raised in Bethlehem to a Christian family rooted in the city for centuries, with a long lineage of master stone sculptors. She holds an MFA and is currently pursuing her PhD in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. She is the recipient of the Palestine Studies Graduate Scholarship from Toronto Metropolitan University, 2026.
Drawing on her ancestral artistic practices, Faten’s artistic and scholarly work explores the notions of home, survivance, cultural memory, identity, resistance, and transnationality through multimedia installations, ranging from hand-crafted objects to digital media and curatorial work grounded in Palestinian visual culture and heritage.
Faten previously served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem and is the author of three books. Her artwork and curatorial projects have been exhibited internationally.
New Forms of Survivance
Faten understands art, for Palestinians, not as a luxury or complementary practice, but as an essential existential practice through which Daymūma, survivance, remembrance, relationality, and solidarity are nurtured.
Through New Forms of Survivance, she approaches curatorial practice as an act of collaboration, care, and artivism. Faten explains: “as co-curators, we share responsibility and accountability, support each other, care for the artists, and nurture our relationships with one another despite our dispersal across the diaspora. Together, we create a platform where artists can amplify their voices and reflect the diversity and beauty of Palestine. The exhibition offers an encounter space for artists, audiences, and communities to come together, engage, exchange knowledge, build collective understanding, and strengthen international solidarity.
Through New Forms of Survivance, we hope to contribute to a world in which we recognize, accept, and appreciate one another as fully equal human beings.
@nastasmitwasi | fatennastas.com