Heba Alders

Biography

As a Curator at Aswan Museum, Heba’s primary role involves designing educational programmes and outreach initiatives to engage diverse visitor groups from the local communities and beyond.

Located in a World Heritage Site (WHS), the Museum is committed to the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage to shed light on world heritage and as a regional museum, they are committed to their local communities. Heba’s work centers on community engagement, and developing new strategies to support the museum’s role national and internationally.

Heba is currently designing educational programmes and initiatives for school students to connect them more with the museum with the goal of demonstrating the ongoing relevance of historical practices in the present day.  She is particularly interested in promoting inclusion and diversity in Egyptian museums in general and is currently collaborating with colleagues in other museums to organise a workshop with ICOM Egypt at the Child Museum and Science Center at the Children’s Center for Civilization in Cairo to engage refugee and Egyptian children in Egyptian museums along with the participation of their mothers.

Heba is also working on an initiative called Your World Heritage Your Cultural Legacy which began in summer 2023 at the Aswan Museum with public libraries and youth centers and now targets schools. The programme includes presentations and site visits to other World Heritage Sites and museums. Most recently the programme was extended to involve Sudanese students in Aswan, encouraging their participation in these activities.

Aswan Museum is currently under renovation.  To ensure the successful transformation of the institution during ongoing renovation, Heba collaborates closely with renovation teams, assisting with collection assessment, documentation, and other expertise when needed. Heba sees the renovation period as an opportunity for self-development. She actively pursues training programmes focused on museum management, exhibition design, and conservation practices to continuously expand her skills and knowledge to be able to contribute to the museum’s future success and ensure the delivery of exceptional experiences once the renovation is complete.

At the British Museum

During her time at the British Museum, Heba was based in the Department of Egypt and Sudan and her UK partner placement was spent at Norfolk Museum Service.

Heba’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Aall Foundation.