Messina: Poet Ali Abdullah Khalifa received the 2024 COLAPESCE Award for Creative Excellence in Global Cultural Achievement from the University of Messina, a prominent institution in southern Italy. The award recognized the poet's over 50 years of dedication to preserving Bahrain's folk heritage and linking it to global intangible cultural heritage.
According to Bahrain News Agency, the poet served as a guide to Danish Professor Poul Olsen in 1963 and Swiss Professor Simon Jargy in 1966, as well as conducting and promoting fieldwork across the Arabian Gulf, including Dhofar and Sohar in Oman and Wadi Al Dawasir in Saudi Arabia in 1978. He also contributed to Iraq's Popular Heritage magazine, established the Gulf States Folklore Centre in Qatar in 1981, and facilitated its funding by seven countries.
He organized four major international conferences in Doha in 1983, bringing together global academics to design field collection strategies and train locals in documentation methods. His initiatives led to the establishment of research teams that gathered oral heritage from the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
He also launched Qatar's Folk Traditions journal in 1985 and established Bahrain's Popular Culture Archive for Research and Publications in 2008, supported by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The multilingual journal Popular Culture, founded and overseen by the poet, has published peer-reviewed research for 17 years, distributed to 167 countries, and recognized by major universities as a reference for academic promotions.
Professor Lillo Alessandro, Chair of the Award Committee, commended the poet's contributions, including his election as the first president of the International Organisation of Folk Art (IOV) in Bergamo, Italy, in 2016. The poet established IOV's first headquarters in Manama with a Bahraini team, facilitated scholarships in folklore studies in the UK, Egypt, and Tunisia, and negotiated unprecedented collaboration among six international organizations, earning UNESCO's appreciation.