FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bayt wa Balad: The Palestinian Cultural Mapping Project
A New Digital Initiative from the Museum of the Palestinian People
Washington, D.C. (September 15, 2025) – The Museum of the Palestinian People is proud to
announce the launch of Bayt wa Balad: The Palestinian Cultural Mapping Project, a
digital mapping initiative dedicated to preserving and documenting Palestinian cultural heritage
from the diaspora.
The Museum of the Palestinian People is the only museum in Washington, D.C., solely
dedicated to documenting, preserving, and presenting the rich cultural heritage and enduring
history of the Palestinian people through art and objects. The museum’s collection includes
artworks, handicrafts, and everyday objects that represent various historical periods in which
Palestinian cultural continuity endured. The museum offers a vital space where a wide array of
objects come together into a single collection, representing the longstanding heritage of the
Palestinian people in the land.
The title of the project, Bayt wa Balad, draws from the Arabic words bayt, meaning home,
and balad, meaning homeland. These terms hold layered, fluid meanings for Palestinians in
exile. They may evoke a single village or encompass many geographies shaped by memory
and displacement. For Palestinians, home and homeland could refer to one, two, or more
places at once due to the condition of exile that has continued for the many generations that
have followed the 1948 Nakba. The title of the project also reflects the museum’s own location
and role in the United States, far from Palestine, where it engages in global cultural heritage
work from Washington, D.C.
This project integrates technology, historical research, and storytelling to document and
visualize displaced and destroyed Palestinian cultural heritage through an interactive map. It
includes both tangible and intangible forms of heritage such as dress, embroidery, poetry, oral
histories, storytelling traditions, music, dance, theater, culinary and agricultural practices,
architecture, passports and other family documentation, archival photographs, calligraphy, and
more. Each object is mapped from where it was made to how it reached the diaspora, providing
vital insight into the exile of objects as a way to visualize and learn about the exile of the
Palestinian people, and the various paths each person and family has taken.
Bayt wa Balad will begin by mapping the museum’s collection, documenting each object within
its original geography, maker history, and cultural context, if possible. Over time, the project will
expand to map sites and objects of destroyed cultural heritage, contextualizing each through
carefully researched history and, when possible, oral testimony. The resulting work, funded by
the Mellon Foundation, will be made publicly accessible through an interactive digital platform,
with more details to follow.
Executive Director Bshara Nassar states:
“Palestinians have endured generations of cultural erasure. Bayt wa Balad builds on the
museum’s mission to protect the art, history, and heritage of the Palestinian people by
preserving and mapping cultural knowledge across borders. This project offers a powerful tool
for future generations of Palestinians in the diaspora to reconnect with their identity, their sense
of home, and their homeland.”
In alignment with the museum’s mission, Bayt wa Balad safeguards history for future
generations while restoring access to displaced communities. It ensures that Palestinians in
exile remain connected to their cultural inheritance and traditional knowledge systems. In
resisting the forces of cultural erasure within the United States, the museum also stands in
solidarity with Palestinian institutions worldwide, asserting the unyielding spirit of a people
whose history lives in art, memory, and the land itself.
The project is led by an interdisciplinary team:
- Steve Benzek, Digital Architect
- Wafa Ghnaim, Research Lead and Oral History Interviewer
- Julia Pitner, Project Manager
In support of the next phase of the project, the team has created a dedicated landing page on
the museum website (www.mpp-dc.org/baytwabalad) to share about next steps in the process,
connect with community members, and build momentum around this participatory effort. The
next phase of the project will include a request for oral histories through a written form linked on
this page.
For media inquiries, interviews, or to connect with the project team, please email
baytwabalad@mpp-dc.org.
