Because the value of cultural diversity to the human community, like that of biological diversity to the continued life of this planet, cannot be underestimated. As the world shrinks, dominant ideologies, religions and cultural expressions overwhelm the margins, and we lose essential elements of the creative process: our appreciation of difference, our freedom to choose, to experiment and to dream of alternatives. The Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts – Makan aims to record and present traditional music and musicians in Egypt as vibrant and renewable cultural resources that bridge Mediterranean and sub-Saharan African cultures. The Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts – Makan also encourages efforts to reawaken the multi-layered complexity of Egyptian music and arts, to restore music to the critical role it has played in the daily life and imagination of the Egyptian people, to counter the trend of isolating it from its original communities, to share this rich resource with the world community and, by presenting it in new contexts, to encourage an appreciation of this music as a resource for creativity.