Making New Friends in the Lone Star State
UAE artist Shamma Al Amri visited Dallas/Fort Worth during the second stop of the Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates tour around the United States. Read about her experience:
Building a Mural Community in León, Nicaragua
The mural in León, like the one in El Viejo, was completed in three days with about 30 participants. The atmosphere was very different there, though – it was more urban, had more colonial architecture, evidence of a tourism industry, and was pretty diverse – as far as I could tell from my short time there.
Soft Power: The Monthly Roundup (January Edition)
Welcome to the latest edition of the Meridian Center for Cultural Diplomacy (MCCD)’s Soft Power: The Monthly Roundup. This blog series is compiled each month by MCCD staff and interns.
This month, we are highlighting seven cultural diplomacy projects from around the world.
Community Comes Together to Paint Mural in El Viejo, Nicaragua
I’m participating in the Mural Arts Exchange Program through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, currently traveling throughout Nicaragua to meet with youth and other community groups from five different cities. In each location, we’ll be creating murals together. As of now, we’ve completed three and have two more to go. Here’s a recap of the first mural, in El Viejo.
8 Months Later: Reflections from Two ‘Past Forward’ Artists
As Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates continues its tour around the United States, the MCCD staff was touched to hear from Zeinab Al Hashemi and Khalid Mezaina – Emirati artists featured in the exhibition – who visited Washington, D.C., during the exhibition launch at Meridian’s Cafritz Galleries this past May. Read what the artists had to say about their exchange: