To request access to the collections (virtual or physical), please see the attached access forms. Follow the instructions on the forms, complete them and return them to BZU Museum (email address in the form) and we will facilitate the process.
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The Tawfiq Canaan Palestinian Amulet Collection is one of the most important (if not the most important) ethnographic collection in and about Palestine. This collection is one of the largest collections globally, not only in Palestine. The Canaan Collection contains more than 1380 pieces that Tawfiq Canaan collected in his life as an ethnographer, a man of medicine, and a local historian. Born in 1882 in Bayt Jala and educated in the American University of Beirut in medicine, Canaan opened his medical clinic in Jerusalem in 1912. As his practice grew, so did his interest in folklore, folk medicine, and archeology. His work and this collection are key to help us understand Palestinian ways of being in the past, present and future. In 1996, the Canaan family restored this important collection to the Palestinian public by donating it to Birzeit University believing in the prestigious standing of BZU as a foremost academic Palestinian institution, where the collection would be safe and well propagated. An inaugural exhibition “Ya kafi Ya Shafi” featuring the collection was held in 1998 in the presence of the Canaan family members and curated by Gisela Helmecke from Pergamon Museum in Berlin. As part of the Hakawi al Mathaf programming, Birzeit University Museum is conducting a series of workshops offered to both students within BZU and to the general public. Through these workshops, Birzeit University Museum aims to engage the Museum collections as a pedagogical tool, alive and present, towards studying the collections as foundational to Palestinian culture, aesthetics and history.
The Textiles Collection (Palestinian embroidered clothes and accessories) holds nearly 400 pieces of rare and historic textile material that tell the story of Palestinian history and design. This rare collection contains pieces from as early as the mid-18th century and quite literally traces the history of Palestine and Palestinians through embroidery and design. The collection contains pieces from various geographic regions throughout Palestine and each piece is specific to its region and time period. They vary in types of embroidery, fabric, patterns, colors and each tell a story of a time and place that is both a cherished part of a Palestinian past and a vital component in our present and guide towards our thinking about the future. The collection benefited greatly and materially under the guidance of Widad Kawar, a world-renowned collector of Palestinian textiles material culture, with whom the BZU Museum has an ongoing relationship. As part of the Hakawi al Mathaf programming, Birzeit University Museum is conducting a series of workshops offered to both students within BZU and to the general public. Through these workshops, Birzeit University Museum aims to engage the Museum collections as a pedagogical tool, alive and present, towards studying the collections as foundational to Palestinian culture, aesthetics and history.
Birzeit University Museum’s Art Collection holds hundreds of pieces of art work from Palestinian and international artists. The life span of this growing collection reflects the institutional memory of BZU as well as BZU Museum from the early 1990s. This collection in all of its diversity of form, style and medium represents both global and national support for our mission at BZU and BZU Museum in terms of pedagogical, artistic and intellectual practice. The collection here is divided into fifteen groups that narrate how the art arrived at BZU and how this collection has accumulated over time in BZU Museum. BZU and BZUM have acquired this magnificent collection over the last three decades and it continues to grow for decades to come.