With support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Al-Bustan is pleased to announce (DIS)PLACED: PHILADELPHIA — a project inviting four artists of Arab heritage to take inspiration from each other, exploring expressions of identity in transition and producing new works with opportunities for engagement in the Philadelphia community.
Collaborators include poet NAZEM EL SAYED (Lebanese, recently relocated to Washington DC), visual artists BUTHAYNA ALI (Syrian, based in Damascus) and EL SEED (Tunisian, based in Paris and Dubai), and composer KINAN ABOU-AFACH (Syrian, based in Philadelphia). Each artist’s residency in Philadelphia will include public viewings and open rehearsals of works in progress, accompanied by poetry readings, public discussions, educational visits, art installations, and/or performances which will take place between February and November 2017.
(From left to right; Buthanya Ali, eL Seed, Kinan Abou-afach & Nazem El Sayed)
In advance of the residencies, Al-Bustan will engage two local documentarians – writer Ann de Forest and photographer/videographer Dave Tavani – to work with Philadelphia residents who have been impacted by displacement. They will collect diverse stories, photos, and videos, examining how displacement affects the Arab-American as well as African-American, Hispanic, and Asian populations in Philadelphia. These stories foreground a localized context that will inform the work of the artists-in-residence. See call for “Tell Us Your Story!”
Al-Bustan is pleased to work with advisors Huda Fakhreddine (poetry), Salwa Mikdadi (art), and Hanna Khoury (music) and with partners Mural Arts Program and University of Pennsylvania in implementing (DIS)PLACED.
As one of 36 organizations to receive a Project grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in 2016, Al-Bustan is honored by this recognition. The Center’s Executive Director Paula Marincola noted this about its funding:
“The talented artists and dynamic organizations that make up our 2016 grantees will enhance the cultural life of the region with exciting new projects and rich artistic voices. We look forward to the outstanding cultural experiences our newest group of grantees will bring to our community.”
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a multidisciplinary grantmaker and hub for knowledge sharing, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. The Center fulfills this mission by investing in ambitious, imaginative projects that showcase the region’s cultural vitality and enhance public life, and by engaging in an an exchange of ideas concerning artist and interpretive practice with a broad network of cultural practitioners and leaders.
