“I’m a Rwandan-American artist and I spent my formative years living between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Having a transnational identity has completely shaped my life as an artist… the flip side of that is that I’ve felt alienated because of my identity. Not everyone has the patience or interest in hearing a complicated...Read More
“What my work is about, is that it hides gender, race and class, so you’re forced to be confronted with something that is unfamiliar. It can’t be categorized.” Nick Cave – On May 28, 2015, American artist Nick Cave presented the second Contemporary Conversations lecture, an exciting new artist exchange program for Art in Embassies(AIE)...Read More
Art brings order to chaos. It gives it voice; it gives it a language.” – Eric Fischl In September 2015, artist Eric Fischl travelled to Ottawa to participate in the third installment of Contemporary Conversations, a series of public events organized by Art in Embassies (AIE), the Embassy of the United States in Ottawa, and...Read More
"Art exists within us. It’s about breaking down barriers. Every stitch from every person is like a thumbprint, and when the threads come together in my art, it’s a metaphor of how we’re all connected and related. Only it’s not just a metaphor, it’s the reality."Read More
"To me, this is the most exciting moment in the history of photography. The potential to explore things that we’ve never done in a still photograph are so great. . . I’ve been very conscious of using new technologies in the medium to push the medium outward …"Read More
“For me, travelling to new places and meeting people from different cultural backgrounds always enriches my art making progress. In the long run, these experiences in Suriname will begin to appear in my art form.”Read More
“We were thrilled to have Dan Namingha, a renowned Native American artist, share his work and experience with Chileans and represent the diversity that makes America the great country it is. Art diplomacy makes a difference and is impactful. As I heard from many who participated in Dan’s events, art brings people together and promotes...Read More
As an artist and global citizen, this exchange was like honey butter on the heart….Traveling to Ethiopia, a deeply spiritual, soulful and ancient country, to create and interact with local creative minds was diplomacy at its best. The country’s variety of cultures, and deep varied history exposed me to a wealth of information and knowledge...Read More
Participating in the Art in Embassies program has been a great opportunity for me to bridge my personal aesthetic with that of another country. It is still too soon to tell the real personal and cultural value of this experience, but I am already excited, and can feel the effects—personally and aesthetically—of my exposure to...Read More
In the spring of 2014, inspired by conversations with State Department AIE curators during studio visits, a group of nine Senegalese artists proposed a collaborative mural project for the new U.S. Embassy in Dakar. The mural was painted on the interior of the embassy perimeter wall facing the new U.S. Embassy building, visible from the...Read More
“My mind is brimming with new knowledge, fresh experiences and deep insights into the Islamic world, and the city and citizens of Doha in particular. I found the Qatari people I met to be warm, welcoming, friendly and enthusiastic about my being there. The artists I met were equally eager to share their work with...Read More
For me, this was one of the most meaningful aspects of the cultural exchange. The connections that I made with these students are deep, long-lasting and continue. Fran Siegel Artist Fran Siegel had been asked to create a site specific commission and conduct a cross-cultural artist exchange by curator Claire D’Alba for the new U.S....Read More
Artist Spencer Finch, whose Moonlight window installation is currently on display at Winfield House, the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence London, was the fourth speaker in the American Artist Lecture Series, a partnership between Art in Embassies (AIE), Tate Modern and US Embassy London. This partnership welcomes audiences of young artists and scholars in a lecture hall...Read More
Artist Julie Mehretu was invited by Chief Curator Virginia Shore to be the fifth speaker in the American Artist Lecture Series, a partnership between Art in Embassies (AIE), Tate Modern and the U.S. Embassy London. Mehretu has currently two works on temporary exhibition; Plovers Wing at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence Madrid, and System, at the...Read More
"...We've been exploring Monrovia, shaking hands, listening, digging into all kinds of research, completely blown away each day, and flat out humbled by what we have seen and the people we have met. From the artists working with children, actor/writer activists working to leverage change in government arts policy, to the lone university art professor...Read More
Let me say that I do not consider myself the bold, adventurous type… so when the curator of Art in Embassies called me to offer me the opportunity to travel to Nairobi to participate in an Artist Exchange , I was excited but quite nervous…. I knew almost nothing about Nairobi, let alone Kenya… During...Read More
Working with the Arts in Embassies program in Norway, I saw how art as diplomacy necessitated the same process of cultural learning and dialogue that stands as the chief goal in the United States’ diplomatic missions abroad. Meeting with members of the Norwegian art community, government officials, and others on the ground where we would...Read More
Following the success of the Senegalese Artist Exchange project in Dakar, Art in Embassies collaborated with The Phillips Collection, Millenium Arts Salon and Cultural DC on the 2014 International Forum Weekend Leading Edge Ideas; Inside the 21st Century Museum, sponsoring four artists from the mural collective to travel to Washington D.C. in October of 2014,...Read More
“The invitation for me to moderate a series of panel discussions called ‘Transformations’ with both U.S. artists and South African artists also inspired me to think about my memory of activist art of the past and my first visit to South Africa in 2005. As I drafted questions for the artists in order to discuss...Read More
“The invitation for me to moderate a series of panel discussions called ‘Transformations’ with both U.S. artists and South African artists also inspired me to think about my memory of activist art of the past and my first visit to South Africa in 2005. As I drafted questions for the artists in order to discuss...Read More
