My work explores the place of contemporary Palestinian art in Palestinian society since the Oslo Accords of 1993. I am particularly interested in the promotion and support of contemporary art as a form of culture that, according to international donors and funding agencies, such as the Ford Foundation and the European Union, is considered fundamental to the establishment of a democratic Palestinian civil society. This is a view shared by many Palestinians who view contemporary art as a critical tool for the protection, utilization and promotion of their cultural heritage and without which their national sovereignty would be at risk. My research is an ethnography of the "art scene" in Jerusalem and Ramallah, two cities which house important Palestinian art institutions and are home to a number of prominent Palestinian artists. I critically investigate how artists and institutions work together to use contemporary art for social and political change, while also examining how such efforts might risk masking the deeper political plight facing Palestine at large. My presentation examines the convergences and tensions that emerge within the Palestinian art scene between culture as a tool for social and political change and culture as aesthetics, or, between culture as an emerging integral player within local politics and its rising value as a commodity within an international art market. This convergence and tension is most evident, I will argue, in the turn to an ethnographic or quasi-anthropological art practice among Palestinian artists over the last decade, a trend within the international art world since at least the 1990s. Building on my own ethnographic research and a series of interviews with local cultural actors, including curators, educators and artists, along with a close analysis of specific works of art, the aim of my presentation will be to elucidate some of the principal features within this ethnographic turn in contemporary Palestinian art and how this turn has impacted upon local politics while simultaneously working within an international art market. My hope is to draw out the play between politics and aesthetics, highlighting both the potentials and dangers at work when culture becomes identified too closely with either position.