Letter from the Executive Director

We at CEC ArtsLink have worked for nearly 50 years to help nations overcome histories of distrust and for nearly 20 years we have focused on empowering the voice of artists to that end. We are therefore delighted to point out the positive and exciting achievements made clear in our current Newsletter: 

• Hank Willis Thomas’s suite of 20 paintings I AM, AMEN was included in the 2011 Istanbul Biennial with the support of an ArtsLink Project Award. One of the series is shown on the cover.
• Unfolding the Newsletter presents the stirring central story by Mariam Ghani about her video-education project undertaken this year in her native Kabul, again, with CEC ArtsLink support.
• And you will also note the extensive list that describes many other important international activities which we have either produced or supported.

Last year I asked for your contributions to help us achieve the goal of bringing our successful models to new geographic regions while maintaining our strong existing networks. As you can see from this Newsletter, we successfully developed—as a direct result of your generous response—visible and ongoing exchanges with Afghanistan and Turkey.

We responded to your call to bring the fruits of our many creative exchanges to audiences here in the U.S. and succeeded in securing a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund grant for a project we call ONE BIG CITY. During the next two years we will work with four partner organizations in New York City to organize and present artists’ collaborations designed to actively engage diaspora communities.

In October and November our fifteen 2011 ArtsLink Fellows—geniuses all!—enjoy Residencies in 11 U.S. states. Planning is underway for more relevant and riveting programming. Our New York staff is developing unique performance and professional development strategies for Russian artists, and creating socially engaged residencies with students in New Mexico and California. Our St. Petersburg office is making arrangements for a performance tour for a wide range of well-known U.S. folk musicians to regions throughout Russia.

Fritzie Brown
Executive Director