AUB Art Galleries and Collections

AUB Art Galleries and Collections is the art programme of the American University of Beirut. It runs two exhibition spaces: the AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery in Ada Dodge Hall on the campus, and the Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum on Sidani Street in Hamra. Both are open Monday to Friday, 12pm to 6pm.

The programme grew out of a university initiative to promote fine and contemporary art in the region. Its first step came with a gift from Dr Samir Saleeby, the Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Collection, which holds paintings by Khalil Saleeby, Cesar Gemayel, Omar Onsi and Saliba Douaihy. The university treats this gift as the base for a broader regional collection of modern and contemporary work. An exhibition of Khalil Saleeby on Sidani Street in the summer of 2012 was the first project.

The galleries look after the permanent collection and works placed around the campus. They organise exhibitions, performances and educational programmes with a particular focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Past shows include The Arab Nude: The Artist as Awakener, Sigmar Polke: Music from an unknown source and Trans-Oriental Monochrome: John Carswell. The Open Walls series draws on the AUB Art Collection.