The Kamel Lazaar Foundation is dedicated to providing a forum for the discussion of visual culture in the Maghreb and Middle Eastern region. Its primary ambition is to promote visual culture from the region and thought leadership in the visual arts. Through shows, symposia, educational events, support for artists, research and publishing initiatives, the Foundation aims to develop sustainable forms of cultural dialogue and debate within the region and beyond. The Foundation was started as a response to the relative absence of cultural foundations in the Maghreb region and the lack of support for maintaining discussions about visual culture in the region.

The Foundation began as a community-based model for engaging local audiences but also seeks to have broader discussions with international practitioners and communities elsewhere – to provide, that is, a series of 'common grounds' for debate. In the words of its founder and Chairman, Kamel Lazaar, the Foundation supports multiple 'small actions' with the ambition of extending a 'common ground' for promoting dialogue between the Middle East and the so-called Western world.