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Arab American National Museum seeks to reflect broader range of immigrants

Associated Press

 

The Arab American National Museum is updating permanent exhibits to boost representation of immigrants and refugees from a broader range of countries.

The museum based in Dearborn says it’s making the changes with a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The facility aims to document recent migration from places such as North Africa that aren’t represented in exhibits and programming.

Museum officials say they want “to give recent arrivals a more proportionate voice in Arab American history.” The effort will start with research and planning, and then the museum will seek another grant to build and install the updated exhibits.

The museum’s grant is among nearly 300 projects and programs nationwide receiving a total of $79 million from the federal agency.

Source: www.freep.com

GAO: Art world wants US to better protect artifacts in Iraq, Syria

By Rebecca Kheel 

The Hill

Art-market experts want the Defense Department to get more involved in preventing the destruction and looting of cultural artifacts in Iraq and Syria, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Monday.

The recommendation was one of seven suggestions experts gave the GAO for ways the U.S. government can better protect artifacts from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other groups, including creating a comprehensive, governmentwide strategy on protecting cultural property.

“Art market experts suggested that an overarching strategy on cultural property protection would communicate and emphasize U.S. priorities on the issue of cultural property protection and that it should include diplomatic and law enforcement elements,” the report says.

ISIS’s destruction of art and other cultural artifacts in the territory it has seized has grabbed headlines as an example of its barbarism and has been called the worst cultural heritage crisis since World War II.

Additionally, ISIS has looted and trafficked artifacts as a source of revenue, though the GAO report notes, “There are no reliable and publicly available estimates of the revenue ISIS earns from trade in stolen cultural property overall.”

In addition to ISIS, other terrorist groups; Iraqi, Russian and Syrian airstrikes; Kurdish groups; Syrian opposition groups; and other individuals have damaged cultural sites and property, according to the report.

U.S. agencies and the Smithsonian Institution have worked in five areas to protect cultural property, according to the GAO. The agencies include the departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury and Defense.

Their efforts include raising awareness, sharing information among agencies, bolstering law enforcement efforts, building capacity overseas and preventing destruction.

But 26 art-market experts who responded to a GAO questionnaire identified seven high-priority ways to improve efforts.

For one, they said, the Defense Department could assign a point person for protecting cultural heritage and take more of a leadership role in enforcing a 1954 Hague Convention on protecting cultural property.

“They believe that DoD efforts appeared to be disjointed among different combatant commands and suggested that the primary point of contact to coordinate all of DoD’s cultural property protection work could potentially be in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,” the report says. “One art market expert noted that DoD does not appear to have an approach to cultural property protection globally.”

In a response included in the GAO report, the Pentagon said the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy’s Office of Stability and Humanitarian Affairs is available as a point of contact for the issue, but that protecting cultural property can involve many different Pentagon offices.

“Thus, DoD officials concluded that they are not certain that a central point of contact through which all inquiries about cultural property must be routed is necessary or would result in greater efficiencies,” the report says.

Also, the Pentagon said in the report that it is a “misperception” for art-market experts to say it is not effectively implementing the Hague Convention or does not have an effective and coordinated approach to protecting cultural property.

The experts also recommended U.S. agencies further increase information sharing among themselves, collaborate more with foreign countries to share law enforcement information internationally, improve U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidelines on importing cultural property, increase law enforcement training, and work with private organizations and foreign governments to create a database of items in museums or storage sites.

U.S. officials generally agreed with those suggestions, according to the report, except for the need to collaborate more with foreign governments on law enforcement, with officials saying they are already able to obtain information from foreign governments.

The experts also suggested the United States create a governmentwide strategy on protecting cultural property.

“Many art market experts we spoke with commented that U.S. agencies currently do not appear to have clearly delineated roles, and these art market experts were unclear which agency would be responsible for addressing certain cultural property issues,” the report says.

U.S. officials had “mixed views” on that suggestion, the report says.

“Specifically, State officials noted that a strategy on cultural property protection could potentially increase coordination between different agencies,” the report says, “but could also be difficult to implement, potentially restrict agency flexibility in meeting new challenges, and might not achieve any new goals.”

Source: thehill.com

Syrian teens dealing with traumatic experiences through art

CBC News

The pictures tell the story. Pictures of tanks, guns and bombing fighter jets, all drawn by young Syrian teens.

They are the scenes etched in the memories of kids, aged 13-19, attending a summer camp for recent Syrian immigrants who landed in Windsor.

It’s helping them adjust to life here and at the same time helping them work through the lasting trauma they experienced overseas.

“Like one of the girls, she saw her sister dying … and her mother got paralysed … lost one of her eyes,” said camp organizer Hiba Hijazi.

The pictures will be sewn together to make a quilt they will take to their school, Westview Freedom Academy, next month.

The camp began on July 13 at the offices of Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women in downtown Windsor.

The 26 teens are also working on what they call a living library. They will use pictures of loved ones they lost in the Syrian conflict to recount their experiences at a celebration later this month.

Mahmoud Al-Sheblak is sketching a picture of his brother from a picture he has of him.

He was shot by Syrian soldiers during a demonstration. He says the camp is teaching him a lot.

“Teamwork and working together,” said Al-Sheblak, who is also happy he has made new friends.

The camp also gives the kids a chance to hone their English skills, and a voice to express what they want us know about them.

“Islam is not terrorist. We are in Canada. Canada is country, is peaceful country,” said Yousef Arab.

“We learn how to respect each other and we enjoy [the] volunteer work we did,” said Omar Al-Haik.

The kids will present their stories and their quilt at a special celebration of the end of camp on Aug. 19 at the Rose City Islamic Centre.

They will also bring the shoes they immigrated to Canada with and put them in a pile and symbolically trash any prejudice they are facing in Canada by writing out the statements on paper and throwing them in a garbage can they are painting up.

Source: www.cbc.ca

PICTURES: Palestinian family life before the Nakba

LEYAL KHALIFE STEPFEED Founded in 1963, The Institute for Palestine Studies is a non-profit organization that has been devoted to providing the world with the information needed on the occupied country. Having been first established in Beirut, it is considered the oldest institute in the world whose work is exclusively dedicated to the documentation, research, analysis and … Continued

NEH Awards Arab American Museum Grant To Update Permanent Exhibits

Press release: Arab American National Museum Two-phase research and implementation process to focus on recent immigration patterns and refugee communities DEARBORN, Mich. (Aug. 10, 2016) – The Arab American National Museum (AANM) has received a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund research to update the Museum’s permanent exhibits. In … Continued

PHOTOS: Preserving Syria through art

Massarah Mikati Your Middle East Leila Khoury never forgot the stunning bathhouse she saw when she visited Aleppo at the age of 15 — the intricate patterns weaving in and out of one another; the deep, dull blue painted on select sections of the walls; the intricate details that lined the multi-colored floors and ceiling. … Continued

America’s Other Orchestras: Arab American Ensemble Series Episode 3

UCLA: The Birthplace BY: Sami Asmar/Contributing Writer Although one of the largest universities in the world, and consistently one of the best in many fields, the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) does not feel crowded. Everybody loves the spacious grounds and unique architecture with Middle Eastern style arches found on many … Continued

Art center draws smile on faces of Gaza children through music, painting

Palestinian artist Rasha Abu Zayed gives children lessons on drawing techniques inside Atelier Center, in Gaza City, on July 30, 2016. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar) by Osama Radi and Emad Darimli Xinhua GAZA, — In the war-torn Palestinian Gaza Strip, a private cultural center helps children alleviate stress and trauma to restart life through art. At the … Continued

New Exhibition Uses Art To Build Bridges Between Middle Eastern, Non-Middle Eastern Communities

By NADYA FAULX 

KMUW RADIO

(PHOTO: “Untitled (Lime)” by Iraqi artist Waseem Ahmad is among the 80 pieces on display at four galleries in the “Building Bridges” exhibition)

A new art exhibition opens today in Wichita that will showcase the work of Middle Eastern artists displaced by war.

Listen Listening…0:49
The Building Bridges exhibit includes 80 paintings, most of them from Iraqi refugee artists. The work was brought here by the nonprofit Wichita Common Humanity, a collaboration of different religious and interfaith groups.

Coordinator Jan Swartzendruber says the goal of the project is to challenge stereotypes about the Muslim and Arab worlds and help the Wichita community better understand its Muslim neighbors.

“It’s really effective to look at a piece of artwork that comes from a person in another culture and the visual part of that, the beauty of it, speaks for itself,” she says. “You just see the art, you appreciate the humanity of the painter.”

Swartzendruber says many people aren’t familiar with Iraqi modern art, but that the openness of Wichita’s strong art community makes it a welcoming city for the exhibition.

“I think this is a ripe time to bring this kind of art to Wichita and it’s going to meet with a lot of enthusiasm,” she says.

The exhibition will also include a sale, with 80 percent of the profits going back to the artists. The show runs through Aug. 26 at The Looking Glass at Cadman Art Gallery at Wichita State University. It will be at various Wichita State and Bethel College galleries through Sept. 30.

Source: kmuw.org

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