Two 7-year-old girls enter the Artellewa Art Space and sit down on wooden chairs, telling the attendant they would like to read Mickey Mouse magazines. The attendant finds the magazines among dozens of books placed orderly on the shelves and gives them to the girls who start reading with a smile.

The cultural center is located in the densely populated and poor district of Ard el-Lewa in northwestern Giza province. The district is located in between the rundown areas of Boulak el-Dakrour and Imbaba. Ard el-Lewa is a maze of crowded, narrow streets full of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorized vehicles), donkey carts and street vendors who make it difficult for private cars and pedestrians to navigate the streets.

Egyptian visual artist and curator Hamdy Reda founded the Artellewa Art Space; the center occupies the ground floor and two floors of his five-story house. 

"With this space I have created a bridge between the inhabitants of the area and culture and art," Reda, 45, told Al-Monitor. "The middle- and low-class residents can enter the world of art and interact with it for free."