Woman at the helm of Egyptian academy in Rome

A woman archaeologist, Gihane Zaki, has been named director of the Egyptian Art academy in Rome. Her 20 predecessors were all men. Zaki is an archaeology professor at the Helwan university in Cairo. Her field is Ptolemaic epigraphy. The new director means to place archaeology at the centre of the academy's activities as up until now "painting has ruled" she said, in a reference to the central role given to this form of art by Farouk Hosni, a former minister and her most notorious predecessor. "He was a painter too", noted Zaki. The new director means first of all to give new impetus to the Egyptian museum within the academy which was inaugurated by former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in September 2010 but is largely ignored by the public with its 120 pieces of ancient Egyptian, Islamic and Coptic art. ";Almost nobody knows this museum" said the director, promising that she will publicise it. Tickets will cost 10 euros, she added. "Students and scientific institutions will get in for free and by appointment" also said Zaki, who means to get the institution into the national museum network. Another new initiative for the institute created in 1924 to promote Egyptian and Arab culture in Italy is an Egyptology school for children. "We will give lessons by theme, starting with the jewels of the most important queens, including Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Cleopatra until the sovereign from the Mamalukan era, Shagaret el Dor" she told ANSAmed. At first only schools in the area will be involved but subsequently other schools in Rome will participate, she said. Another important objective for the new director is bringing Egyptian artists to Rome to present their work at the academy. Zaki's predecessors in the last 88 years were all men. From 2003 until 2011, as the director general for international cooperation of the Superior council of antiquities, the archaeologist worked aside the former controversial secretary general Zaki Hawass, from whom she has distanced herself. After the revolution, she left her position but her international experience won her a post in a commission of experts set up by Egypt's new leadership. Zaki has also announced she intends to iteract with the Egyptian museum in Turin and other cultural institutions in Rome including the academy of France. "Egyptology is French but it is also Egyptian", she said. "We can work together in joint projects". Tthe academy's activities should resume in the third week of October with an event whose logo chosen by the new director will be "art, culture, freedom".