Soad Fayez Mahrous Ebeid

Biography

Soad is the Director General of the Beni Suef Museum. Previously, she has worked as the Head of Pharaonic Department, a curator and a museum educator so she has a wide and varied background in museums.

Currently the Beni Suef Museum is closed to the public so Soad’s time is spent developing and planning for when it re-opens. She works to create events, partnerships and projects with other institutions so that the local community remains invested and involved in the Museum. She makes connections and plans projects with the local community and schools. She gives lectures in schools with the aim of ensuring the children learn about Egyptian civilisation. Particularly she is interested in working with small villages and poor communities – those who might not otherwise get this opportunity.

Particularly important is Souad’s partnership with the Media Faculty of Beni Suef University and some of civil society officials to set up a media tourism conference. This conference will aim to put Beni Suef on the local and global tourist map; to fully exploit the archaeological, tourist and environmental resources in Beni Suef and to spearhead the awareness of archaeology and civilisation among the people. The conference is due to be held in October 2018 and already they have designed an interactive map, which has been developed for the province and will highlight the most important tourist and archaeological landmarks in each area.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2010, Soad was based in the Department of Egypt and Sudan and her partner placement was spent at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Newcastle.

Soad’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Rosetta Stone.

Legacy Projects
In October 2018 Soad attended the ITP+ Course on Museum interpretation in Aswan. Fellows and colleagues from Egypt, Sudan and around the world listened to interpretation case studies, participated in project work, sessions on label & panel writing and panel discussions on audience surveys and evaluations. The course was hosted by the Nubian Museum.