Jack Persekian is a Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is of Armenian descent and a United States citizen.
Life and work
Born to an Armenian family in East Jerusalem, Persekian started his career in the arts world as a musician and music promoter in the 1980s, before turning to the visual arts. After returning from an extended stay in the United States in 1992, he founded Anadiel Gallery in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, as the first independent gallery in the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation, with a focus on contemporary Palestinian artists. In 1996, he invited Palestinian-British artist Mona Hatoum to Jerusalem and subsequently organized her first exhibition in Palestine. Persekian is also the founder and director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem. With Al-Ma’mal, he curated the 2008 and 2010 editions of The Jerusalem Show, which has since established itself as a biennial cultural event in the Old City. In 2008, he was jury president of the biennial Artes Mundi art competition at the National Museum Cardiff, the biggest art prize in the United Kingdom. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the founding director of the Sharjah Art Foundation with responsibility for the Sharjah Biennial. He lost his position over a controversial artwork that was banned from the art show following an intervention by Sharjah’s ruler, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi. From 2011 to 2015, Persekian was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London. He also served as artistic director of the art event Qalandiya International, conceived as a Palestinian biennial. In 2012, he was one of three jury members for the inaugural Akbank Sanat International Curator Competition. In 2012, he assumed the role of head curator and director of The Palestinian Museum. He resigned from his position at the end of 2015, less than a year before the museum’s official inauguration, over differences with some of the main financial backers of the project. In 2016, Persekian was awarded the Palestine Order of Merit for Culture, Sciences and Arts by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Persekian is openly critical of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967 and the resulting discrimination of non-Israeli residents. Citing his personal experience as a Palestinian, non-Jewish Jerusalemite subject to Israeli laws, he says he cannot accept any of the lucrative international job offers that would require him to leave the city borders for half a year without risking his residency status and property of his family’s home in East Jerusalem.
