Grant will help enrich artistic dialogue and cultural exchange of ideas between East and West on a local and global scale.
A new $50,000 grant from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation will bring more artists to The MacDowell Colony from the Middle East.
MacDowell launched the Voices of Change initiative in fall 2012 to promote artistic freedoms in regions of political, economic, and social instability. With the help of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the program so far has served seven artists from six different countries, including Syrian filmmaker Nabil Maleh, Palestinian architect Lana Judeh, and Lebanese composer Joelle Khoury.
The new grant, which establishes Robert Sterling Clark Fellowships for five additional artists from the region, will ensure that the program continues to enrich the open exchange of ideas that takes place at MacDowell. In the rapidly changing Middle East, artists are helping to lead the dialogue of envisioning a way forward. Beyond nurturing this important work, one aim of Voices of Change is to bring these artists together with others working in the United States and other countries. As a leading grant maker for individual artists in the region, Beirut-based AFAC has been instrumental in making these exchanges possible, says MacDowell’s Executive Director Cheryl A. Young.
“We were so impressed with the artists that AFAC is supporting,” Young said. “Voices of Change is an exciting opportunity for us both to enrich the artistic dialogue within our residency community and to direct our mission to artists who have a critical need for it.”
The Middle East, along with Africa and Latin America, is an area of focus for the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, which seeks to help promote global understanding through the arts. As public and private support for cultural diplomacy has waned since the Cold War, the Foundation has stepped in, awarding more than $7 million in grants through its International Arts Engagement program.
