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About
The arts program functions as a disseminator of culture within Egyptian society, focusing on temporary exhibitions and the preservation of artistic heritage through its collections department.
The BA Arts Center operates within the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, functioning as a major cultural hub and disseminator of art and knowledge. It houses an Art Exhibitions and Collections Department that organizes temporary exhibitions and maintains an Arts and Multimedia Library. The institution also encompasses four dedicated museums—the Sadat Museum, Antiquities Museum, Manuscripts Museum, and History of Science Museum—alongside numerous research centers focused on heritage, science, and regional studies.
Why this museum matters
Exhibo editorial
The Corniche at Chatby, near where the Ptolemies' library may have stood: a vast tilted disc of glass and aluminium sinking toward the sea, its granite outer wall carved with letters from more than a hundred scripts. The Norwegian office Snøhetta won the competition; the building opened in 2002. Inside, the terraced reading room under the slanting roof is the main event, but the complex is a whole cultural quarter: an Antiquities Museum with finds from the site and the harbour, a Manuscripts Museum with rare Islamic texts and a restoration lab behind glass, a museum of the history of science, the Sadat Museum, a planetarium, exhibition halls — and the Arts Center listed separately. Two thousand years after the original burned, Alexandria built the idea again.
Visit
Hours, tickets, and directions for Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Address
Al Azaritah / Chatby, Alexandria
Opening hours
- Monday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Friday
- Closed
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 14:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 19:00
Hours vary between sources and in Ramadan; check before visiting.