Yearlong Arab Art Initiative to Kick off in New York this Fall
Still from Mirage (Sarab), 2016, by independent Saudi artist Nugamshi who will participate in the yearlong Arab Art and Education Initiative, which kicks off in October.SOURCE: ARTFORUM
The Misk Art Institute, established by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud last year, has announced that it will launch the yearlong Arab Art and Education Initiative in New York this October. The citywide program is being organized in partnership with the United Nations and more than fifteen major cultural institutions. According to the institute, the program will serve as “a new platform for cultural dialogue to build greater understanding between the United States and the Arab world.”
Among the institutions participating are the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which will stage an exhibition featuring stories of Syrian refugees; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which will host a symposium that explores the relationship between the field of Islamic art and avant-garde abstraction; and the Guggenheim Museum, which will hold artist talks. Other programming includes a new Arab artist-in-residence program at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and walking tours of the former “Little Syria” neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. Further details about the initiative will be announced during the New York-Arab World Culture Summit at the UN on October 16, for which cultural figures from across the globe will attend to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals, a collection of seventeen goals set forth by the UN and world leaders in 2015 to realize a better world by 2030.
“This initiative developed out of our strong desire to share the stories of young Arab artists with a US audience and create a reciprocal exchange between New York institutions and the diverse cultural production coming from the Arab world,” Ahmed Mater, director of Misk Art Institute said in a statement. “Interest in this output is underscored by the dynamic group of institutions that have made thoughtful and passionate commitments to furthering the conversation around Arab art and history—a conversation that is needed now more than ever.”
The initiative’s partner institutions include:
ArtX
Asia Society
Brooklyn Museum
Columbia University
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
Guggenheim Museum
Mana Contemporary
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Middle East Institute
Museum of Modern Art
Pioneer Works
UNESCO
Washington Street Historical Society
