All Eyes on Her!/ كل العيون عليها ! is a community stewardship programme shaped with Egyptian women, artists, educators, cultural workers, social welfare initiatives, feminist networks, filmmakers, publishers, translators, designers, community collectives and diaspora groups in Egypt and the UK in partnership with the Horniman.
It won Community Engagement Programme of the Year at the Museums + Heritage Awards ceremony on 13 May 2026 at the Hilton Park Lane, London. The category was the most popular of the year for applications.
The award recognises the work of more than 250 Egyptian and diaspora community members who came together to challenge the disconnection between Egyptian collections in UK museums and contemporary Egyptian communities. Developed through a partnership among Egyptian community partners, the Horniman Museum and Gardens, and UCL, the programme repositioned Egyptian women not as audiences or consultees but as rights-holders, authors, cultural workers, and stewards in the care, interpretation, and future of Egyptian heritage.
The Museums + Heritage Awards judges commented:
‘Our winner goes far beyond consultation to deliver genuine institutional change. It has placed Egyptian and diaspora communities at the heart of how their heritage is interpreted and is a transferable model of shared stewardship for the sector.’
Responding to the award
All Eyes on Her! Community Translation Collective:
‘We dedicate this award to every Egyptian woman. To every mother who fought alone to raise her children, to every woman facing the daily struggles and challenges of life in Egypt, and to every woman who fought for a better place and greater dignity for women in society.’
Dina Zaitoun, All Eyes on Her! partner and graphic designer:
‘This win is rooted in representation, bringing Egyptian women’s narratives to light through our own eyes and lived experiences. So proud of the work we did to ensure our community’s presence is celebrated at the Horniman. Winning looks good on us!’
Mariam Aboelzz, All Eyes on Her! community linguistic partner and advisor:
‘What makes All Eyes on Her so special is that it worked with Egyptian women at every step of the curatorial process to give them the opportunity to tell their own story, making it a model for true community engagement. The Museums + Heritage award felt like a tribute, not only to this important work, but to all those women – past and present – and to their everyday stories of existence and resistance.’
The partners
The programme was made possible through the leadership, creativity and labour of a wide network of partners.
In Egypt:
- partners included community education, social welfare and heritage initiatives such as Tawasol for Community Social Services and Community Education School, Haitham El Sayed: Stories Truck, Ahalina for Qurna Village, and Al Rahmany for Replicas.
- the programme also worked with comic artists and collectives including Nasser Junior, El3osba, and Deena Mohammed; creative writing, publishing and art book initiatives including Millennial 3al Akher of Fatma AlZahraa, Moving Texts Lab of Fatma AlZahraa, Zine bel 3arabi of Esraa Kamal, and Mowadah Nofal of Cairo Art Book Fair
- and performing arts, heritage and translation practitioners including Mariam Aboelzz, Asmaa Halim of Studio Halima for Dance Movement Therapy, Nada El-Helfawy of Ganubi Heritage Inspired Fashion Store.
In the UK:
- partners included institutional and funding partners such as the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, the AHRC-funded Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage project, and Egypt at the Horniman: Mobilising Collections Histories for Institutional Change
- alongside women-led diaspora collectives and creatives including Hekayatna, Culture Mocktail, Liblib, Yalla Cook, Hekayat Aflam, Ray Makes Things, Suzan Shedid El Sayed, Mel Scribbles, and Egyptian Girls in UK.
The visual, linguistic and creative identity of the programme was shaped by artists and designers including Dina Zaitoun, Amina Diab, Farida Eltigi, and Hanaa El Degham.
The programme also connected with Egyptian womanhood documentary film producers and filmmakers including Hadeer Hassan, Mayye Zayed, and the Panorama Deir El Birshah Girls Troupe through The Brink of Dreams.
Its wider network included safeguarding, feminist media and community empowerment initiatives such as E7kky, SpeakUp, and Horus Skate Group, as well as Cairo-based exhibition, publishing and community gathering spaces including Medrar for Contemporary Art, Diwan Book Publishing and Store, and Cairo Art Gallery.
About the programme
All Eyes on Her! was shaped through Egyptian-rooted forms of gathering, care and knowledge-sharing, including lammet ʿeila – family gatherings – and ʿaʾdet setat – women’s circles. Community partners also organised and communicated through WhatsApp groups, voice notes, stickers and social media, reflecting the ways Egyptian women and wider community already build solidarity, activism and mutual support.
The resulting All Eyes on Her! display at the Horniman was curated and interpreted by our Egyptian women partners, with interpretation developed through community-led creative writing workshops rather than being museum-led.
For the first time at the Horniman, Egyptian Arabic and English appear side by side, making the interpretation text not simply a translation of museum language, but a space where Egyptian women’s voices, memory, humour, grief, resistance and imagination shape how heritage is encountered.
The programme also led to wider institutional and sector change, including bilingual interpretation, updates to the permanent Egypt display and catalogue entries, community-led exhibition work in Egypt, digital content amplifying Egyptian women’s activism and creative work, and community-led manifestos on the ethical care of Egyptian ancestral remains and meaningful museum takeover programming.
At its heart, All Eyes on Her!/!كل العيون عليها shows what becomes possible when museums move beyond consultation and make space for communities to define relevance, set terms, refuse extractive ways of working, and shape how their heritage is cared for, interpreted and shared.