Omnia Zaghlol Chehata Abdelgwad
Akhenaten Museum
Deputy Director for Archaeological Affairs
Country: Egypt
ITP Year: 2022
Biography
As Deputy Director for Archaeological Affairs, Omnia is responsible for organising educational activities, selecting artefacts for display, and managing the team at the Akhenaten Museum.
Omnia previously held the position of Supervisor of the Departments and Administration at Akhenaten Museum, where her responsibilities ranged from organising departmental activities to the planning of programmes with local communities, spreading awareness of archaeology and developing school workshops.
Her museum interests include education, accessibility and collections databases. A strong professional interest is community work and developing sustainable ways of working with the local society and is currently researching The Role of the Museum in Achieving Community Communication with Marginalized Groups, a subject she has written about in the Journal of Museums in the Middle East. Alongside this, she has worked on a summer course which aimed to create job opportunities in heritage for young people, developed a textile craft workshop about for women and organised a series of scientific research lectures for schoolgirls.
Currently, the Museum is under construction and closed to the public and work is underway to keep the local community involved, focusing on the museum’s social and cultural role and integrating with society to prepare for the future.
At the British Museum
During Omnia’s time on the International Training Programme she spent time in whole group sessions for a detailed overview of all aspects of the Museum’s work, both front of house and behind the scenes. She also spent some time in the department of Egypt and Sudan. She spent her UK partner placement at Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery.
Omnia worked with the ITP 2022 participants to develop a 15-object trail based on a story they wanted to share based around the British Museum collection. The theme of the trail was food and drink and Omnia’s chosen object was the Nebamun tomb painting.
Omnia’s place on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.