Shubbak Team
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Alia Alzougbi
Artistic Director & CEO
Alia is a cultural strategist, artist and facilitator working at the intersection of art and social and environmental justice. Her practice uses the arts to interrogate the fundamental causes of inequality and explore alternative modes of understanding the world and being in it, foregrounding dignity for all beings and Earth, our only home.
She has worked with national and international organisations as an artist and storyteller to create critical encounters in education and the arts towards collective liberation, from local corner shops to world-renowned museums.
Alia is a Chevening Scholar, a Clore Fellow and Associate, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Prior to joining Shubbak, she was Director of the global citizenship education organisation Global Learning London.
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Sukriti Sharma
General Manager & Participation Producer
Sukriti is a culture and community engagement professional with a deep love and curiosity for working with people from diverse backgrounds. She has previously worked on the Jaipur Literature Festival and Should Art, amongst other multi-art form programmes in India. She has mentored a cohort of young leaders from India and the UK on the Pravah International Citizen Service programme, and has also co-developed arts practice learning programmes for young artists - including the Mumbai edition of Writer’s Lab with Soho Theatre and G5A. Trained as a community music facilitator with Musicians Without Borders, her background is in creating safe and inclusive creative spaces for reflection, expression, and collaboration through community arts practice and youth engagement. Her academic inquiries rest across political science, cultural studies and music & development, and she holds an MA in Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy from Goldsmiths, University of London.
![Portrait of Nick Anderson](https://www.shubbak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/kkasdka-575x600.jpg)
Nick Anderson
Executive Producer
Nick is a London-based festival producer who has developed festivals and tours across the world. His particular interests sit within counter-cultural and mainstream crossovers, and how best to present exceptional artwork. He has worked across multiple art forms, and with a specific interest in electronic music and experimental sonic artists. When developing programmes and events, he is focused on presenting work with highest possible production and access levels. Recently he produced Nelly Ben Hayoun’s Tour de Moon, which was a huge scale touring festival across England, which focused on creating many hundreds of opportunities for young creatives. He’s very happy to have joined the Shubbak team, as he was an audience at the 2019 festival, and it was a cultural highlight of the year for him.
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Melanie Precious
Executive Director (interim)
Melanie is a cultural leader and innovator, joining the team at Shubbak directly from a five year tenure as CEO and Creative Director at Greenwich Dance. With a belief in the power of arts to strengthen communities and enrich lives, she has worked across multiple roles to support the embedding of culture within regeneration, placemaking, community development and health and wellbeing agendas. She specialises in entrepreneurial and creative thinking and brings experience of running a project funded arts organisation and small charity. Whilst at Greenwich Dance she transformed a building based organisation to become peripatetic, conceived of and delivered ArtsUnboxed (a platform designed to tour ideas rather than people) as well as co-curating and hosting 5 series of the podcast Talking Moves.
Her leadership was recognised by the dance sector in February 2024 with the awarding of the One Dance UK Dance Spotlight Award. She was nominated for a Women in Leadership Award by AWA (Advancing Women’s Aspirations with Dance) in 2021. During her tenure at Greenwich Dance the organisation was awarded the Best of Royal Greenwich Business: Tourism and Culture (2020) and the organisation was nominated for a Best of Royal Greenwich Business: Heath and Wellbeing (2022). In 2024 Greenwich Dance was nominated by One Dance UK in the Community Champion category.
Melanie is an alumni of Clore Pulse Leadership course as well as the National Arts Fundraising School and is thrilled to be joining the inspirational team at Shubbak.
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Yiwen Wang
Operations Assistant Intern
Yiwen is a current graduate student at Goldsmiths majoring in ARTS ADMINISTRATION AND CULTURAL POLICY who background is photography. She is passionate about arts management projects outside of White Space. She has worked at MadeIn Gallery in Shanghai, China, participating in outstanding projects such as Signal and Xu Zhen Supermarket. She has learnt to see things from a more human perspective and to be more ethical. She wants to listen to the voices that have been ignored in the mainstream discourse, the marginalised voices. And to amplify these voices and give a voice to marginalised groups. To focus not just on the general art community but also on people with disabilities, people who don't speak the same language - people who traditionally don't have access to art projects. She hopes to promote current art projects to these groups.
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Xiang LI
Producer's Assistant Intern
Xiang Li is doing an internship at Shubbak in the Producer's Assistant position. Meanwhile, she is working on her MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy at Goldsmiths. Before this, she worked in the arts and culture industry for several years. She has extensive experience in the operation and management of cultural projects, small theatres, family cultural projects, and the execution of various cultural events. She is interested in community engagement and hopes to learn from the experience at Shubbak and bring the concept back to her hometown for development.
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Dénia Dimsdale
Research and Engagement Intern
Dénia is pursuing an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and holds a BA in Arabic and French from the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on cross-cultural interactions, cultural diplomacy, and the transformative power of art. She is a student ambassador and event coordinator for the SOAS Middle Eastern Institute (SMEI) and a French interpreter for refugees at Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS). Dénia is interested in indigenous North African communities, languages, and the healing power of creative expression.
![Shubbak Young Advisors](https://www.shubbak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Shubbak019_20190707_BritishMuseum_5-600x600.jpg)
Our wider team
Our festivals are supported by a team of volunteers, freelance producers and partner organisations.
Website by Bullet Creative.
Shubbak Trustees
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Andrew Marcus
Andrew is a communications, brand and marketing consultant, facilitator and coach. He was previously Chief Communications Officer at Executive Board level at the Museum of London responsible for PR, marketing, social media and public affairs. His focus was on redefining the museum’s brand and attracting greater numbers of people who are more representative of London.
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Fady Alrayyes
Fady Alrayyes is a Principal at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), an institution established to help member countries develop their economies. In his role he covers the Arab countries, manages technical cooperation projects, and conducts policy dialogue on local currency and capital markets development. Before joining EBRD, he worked as a research analyst for Thomas Murray, a London based consulting firm specialised in providing information and risk rating of capital market institutions, primarily covering the Middle East and Africa desk and working on product development. Fady holds a bachelor in economics from London School of Economics, and a Master’s degree in investment and finance from University of Exeter.
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Riwa Saab
Riwa is a Young Shubbak and Barbican Young Poets alumnus and interdisciplinary artist, specialising in theatre directing, poetry and singer songwriting. She recently completed a BA in Performance and Creative Enterprise at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.