9. Culture, Sports and Arts

Established in 1993, Artas Folklore Center was the first cultural center in the Bethlehem area to be licensed by the Palestinian Authority under the Ministry of Culture. This gave formal recognition to twenty years of work by its founder, Musa Sanad. The founding board was composed of several illustrious figures such as Sameeha Khalil, founder of In’ash il Usra, Sharif Kanaana, Abdel Latif Baghrouti and Abdel Aziz Abu Hadba. However, as the years passed Artas Folklore Center became increasingly associated with its driving force, Musa Sanad.

Located in a historic building just near the village’s Mosque of Omar and the Artas Spring, it offers a spectacular view of the Artas Valley and the shrine of Hortus Conclusus, or the Enclosed Garden below. Its main objective is to preserve and promote the especially rich tangible and intangible heritage of the village, whose unique, lush ecosystem, traces of a large number of successive civilizations, and the diverse body of knowledge and lore culled over the last century-and-a-half by foreigners and Palestinians make it “the most studied village in Palestine,” as well as encouraging the study of Palestinian folklore and traditions in general.