What does it mean to be a Palestinian? In recent years, more and more individuals have turned to one creative field or another to offer up their own answer to that question, in the hope that a better understanding of it will bring real change.

“With the continued failure of the political process, many of us now believe that culture is where we should channel our resources, energy and hopes,” Zina Jardaneh, chair of the board of the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, in the West Bank, told me recently, echoing the words and sentiments of a number of other Palestinians I have spoken to in the past two decades. Drowned out by other events, their efforts deserve broader acknowledgment and support.

What started out as independent artists wishing to express themselves has grown into a collaborative campaign of sorts, with individuals and cultural organizations banding together to promote Palestinian arts.

The Palestinian Museum, conceived and built by Taawon, a nonprofit civil society organization formed in Europe by a group of Palestinian businessmen and intellectuals, is one example. Since the opening of its sprawling home in 2016, it has become a symbol of the ambitions and determination of those involved in this informal cultural “movement.”