Jennifer Schrock 
IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs team recently sat down with Stevennina, an exchange visitor from Canada who interned with artist Zachary Oxman at his studio. We got to know Stevennina a bit more and learned about her artistic practice. Keep watching for “10 Questions with Stevennina” and go “Behind the Bronze” with this incredibly talented emerging artist!
Learn more about IA&A's programs for emerging artists and start planning your exchange experience!
Can you name #5WomenArtists? We can! We’re joining the National Museum of Women in the Arts and other arts organizations around the world to celebrate women artists and promote gender equality in the arts.
This Women’s History Month, IA&A is taking the challenge and sharing the stories of several spectacular women artists who have participated in our Exchange Visitor Program. We are so proud to have such brilliant, creative, and inspiring women in our midst that it was so tough to choose only five! Read on to celebrate these artists and join us in contributing to the dialogue on gender inequality in the arts by using the hashtag #5WomenArtists.
Hailing from Canada, Mia Riley is an emerging ceramic artist who finds inspiration while adventuring in nature. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, she has also completed residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, researching wood kiln building, alternative making processes, and the natural disasters that have affected her home province in the last decade.
She recently finished an eight-month long internship with Harvard University’s Ceramics Program as part of IA&A’s Exchange Visitor Program. During her program, she had the opportunity to explore her own art practice and gain hands-on experience running studio operations.
As Mia says, ceramics allow her to depict abstractly her experiences into tangible three-dimensional objects, emphasizing the transience of landscape and subtly referencing our place within the natural system. Her favorite part of interning in Boston was being able to meet new artists and share experiences. “Because the Harvard studio is home to a large number of artists, professionals, and students at many stages of their careers, I had the chance to meet and exchange ideas on many levels,” she told us. “It has inspired me to see how ceramic art and pottery can exist in many different aspects in one’s life and career.”
To learn more about Mia, check out IA&A’s profile on this talented artist! You can also find out more about her work by visiting her website or following her on Instagram!
Romina Schulz Rosas is a Peruvian feminist textile artist and graduate with a painting specialty from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Her work focuses on exposing problems Peruvian women face under current socio-cultural taboos and constructs. More specifically, how female bodies have become territory and space under the colonizing gaze of a patriarchal, oblivious androcentric context which treats them as disposable.
Part of her effort to expose this phenomena is in the creation of her project, Que rico menstruo, where she gives embroidery workshops to begin to dismantle the stigma surrounding menstruation. As part of the project, Romina prompts interventions on pieces of clothing, focusing on the groin area, with materials of various shades of red, simulating a menstruation blood stain.
Romina is currently in the Artists in Residence (AIR) program at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY, through IA&A’s Exchange Visitor Program. The AIR program equips emerging artists and designers with resources and skills to better articulate their practices and contribute to their communities. It combines studio access with a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, regular critical dialogue, and mentorship.
You can find out more about Romina’s work by following her on Instagram!
Stevennina Drassinower is an extraordinary sculptor currently interning at Oxman Studios in Washington, DC. She describes her work as relating to sculptural metal, telling us “I make aesthetically interesting things, mostly out of metal. Sculpture is where I found my calling, and metal is where I really found my voice.” Through her exchange experience she learned a tremendous amount about art as a business, refining design and idea generation, as well as technical metalworking skills.
“There is not a single part of me as an artist that has not been touched and made better by my experience at Oxman Studios. I’ve learned sustainable, practical strategies for handling the balancing act between being an emotionally sincere artist, and a regular person with practical needs, and life outside work. At the same time, I’ve been learning to create art that has wildly surpassed my own expectations of what I was capable of.”
“Before coming here, I had a vague dream to make a career selling my art, but had no real idea how to make it happen. In my time at Oxman Studios I’ve experienced the daily minutiae of studio life, and exhilaration of truly inspired creation. When all this is over, and I fly back to Canada, I'll leave knowing that through this experience, my artistic visions have been made more grand, and my toolbox more full.”
You can find out more about Stevennina’s work by following her on Instagram!
Anyuta Gusakova is a classically trained contemporary artist from Canada who works in multimedia sculpture and painting. She's a self-proclaimed “sculptor of dreams”, telling us:
“I am a dreamer, I have all sorts: happy dreams and dark dreams. Dreams for children and dreams for adults, 2D dreams and 3D dreams. They come to me when I sleep or day-dream. My job is to materialize them in acrylic or watercolor, clay or stone, metal or paper whichever form they want to take. I help the dreams to escape from their ethereal kingdom and fill our world with their mysterious, irrational beauty.”
Anyuta combines principles of classical art with craft applications, folk, and mythical motifs through her signature brand slip-cast porcelain functional and decorative objects. Her sculptures are on public display at the Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver Playhouse. Additionally, she recently won a commission to design and create a porcelain statuette for the new national Canadian Legend Award and she has been a finalist in several major international ceramic competitions in the United States, Canada, and France.
Anuyta is currently completing a residency program with Pottery Northwest in Seattle, WA, through IA&A’s Exchange Visitor Program. During her residency, she is growing as a ceramic artist, engaging in the community, and further developing her body of work.
To learn more about Anyuta, visit her website or follow her on Instagram!
Liene Bosquê is an accomplished Brazilian visual artist and art educator currently based in New York and Miami. She also knows #WhyHostingMatters! Last year, she hosted exchange visitor Romain for a three-month internship with her studio.
Liene’s work is inspired by the relationship between people and place. She evokes memory, context, and history in the traces, shadows, impressions, imprints, and reflections within her multidisciplinary installations, objects, and site-specifics. She seeks to “investigate the passage of time, which changes place and how we look at place, through the presence and absence of who inhabit these places.” On top of her own art, Liene currently teaches sculpting workshops for immigrants in the New New Yorkers Program at the Queens Museum.
Her work has been exhibited extensively across the United States and internationally, including exhibitions at MoMA PS1 (2016), William Holman Gallery in New York (2015), the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (2013), Carpe Diem in Lisbon, Portugal (2010), and Museu de Arte de Ribeirao Preto in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil (2007), to name a few. Her work has also been displayed at nonprofit galleries and public spaces worldwide.
To learn more about Liene, visit her website or follow her on Instagram!
Learn more about IA&A's programs for artists and start planning your unique exchange experience!
In the historic Neve Tzedek quarter of Tel Aviv, Anat Meidan has quite literally brought history home. A curator, art collector, and researcher, Anat and her husband turned their home into a private museum that displays the Art Nouveau and Art Deco art that they have spent the past thirty years collecting and restoring.
Among the many works in the collection is a portrait of Misia Natanson Sert, painted in 1905 by Charles Picart Le Doux, a student of Renoir. Anat has always been fascinated with the portrait and wanted to learn more about Misia and her life. She decided to travel to the Frick Collection in New York to pursue in-depth research on the Natanson family’s collection and Misia’s role as an art collector. The Frick Art Reference Library, which serves as one of the world’s most complete resources for the study of Western art, seemed like the perfect resource for learning more about Misia.
Anat was awarded a fellowship from the Center for the History of Collecting, established at the Frick Art Reference Library in 2007 to encourage and support the study of the formation of collections of fine and decorative arts. Each year, the Center offers short- and long-term fellowships that provide support to pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, as well as senior scholars. International Arts & Artists is proud to support the Frick Collection and provide J-1 visa sponsorship for international researchers like Anat participating Center’s fellowship program. The wealth of material at the Frick Art Reference Library allowed Anat to research the history and importance of Misia, as well as the impressive private collection Misia and her husband amassed.
We recently caught up with Anat to hear more about her research, her time at the Frick Collection, and what she uncovered about Misia.
It was a privilege to have been given the opportunity to work at the Frick alongside such committed and dedicated colleagues, who were ready to share with me their professional knowledge and expertise. I feel enriched by the experience and will cherish these days for the rest of my life. The ten weeks I spent at the Frick Collection Library filled me with immense pride and satisfaction at what I was able to achieve. Although I could not complete my research in the time I had at my disposal, I managed to do better than I had expected at the outset and I would very much like to return to the Frick to continue my work.
The initial impetus of my research at the Frick Collection came from a painting from my private collection. It is a portrait of Misia Natanson Sert (1872-1950) painted by Picart Le Doux (1905), and from the moment I acquired the painting I have been intrigued by Misia and her colorful life in Paris. The title of my research is: “Misia Natanson Sert – The Mystery and Mastery of an Art Collector.” Prior to embarking upon my research at the Frick, I already had an extensive knowledge about the fascinating life of Misia who was the muse for painters, writers, and composers who were attracted to her and sought out her close, intimate attention, and company. I also knew about the private collection of paintings she and her husband Thadée Natanson (1868-1951) had built up during twelve years of their marriage and which had a great influence on the artistic scene of late 19thcentury Paris. Their collection, which had to be sold due to financial difficulties, consisted of 65 paintings and was auctioned at Hotel Drouot in Paris on June 13, 1908. Until I actually held the sale catalogue from the 1908 auction which is in the Frick Collection Library, I had no knowledge of all the paintings the Natansons had in their collection. This information was of great importance to me and had a significant impact upon my research. After ten weeks at the Frick Collection Library I had managed to locate, identify, or trace 53 of the paintings, which are either in the possession of major museums and art collections throughout the world (11 are in the United States), private collections, or whose current whereabouts are unknown. This is an important achievement, being one of the main objectives of my research. My exchange experience at the Frick Collection has had a strong, important impact on my life as a researcher and collector. It has encouraged me to pursue different directions: to write a book, to tell the story of the Natanson’s collection, and/or propose an idea for an exhibition.
My favorite memory from my exchange program is the exciting moment in which I discovered that one of the paintings that had belonged to the Natansons (Lot no. 21 by Cezanne) was stolen from a museum in Oxford on New Year’s Eve in the year 2000, in a daring robbery. It has not been seen since and as far as I can tell this was “breaking news.”
I enjoyed visiting the museums, and going to dance performances and concerts. I was even photographed next to paintings of Misia herself or next to those from her collection.
Enjoy it to the utmost. One should know how to combine research program with what city can offer to the visitor.
Even though this is not the first time I’ve been to New York, the long period of stay enabled me to get know the city in depth, to do things when it was convenient for me, with no pressure of time. I had the feeling that New York became friendlier to me, or that I became friendlier towards the city.
Based in Brooklyn, NY, UnionDocs (UNDO) is a non-profit Center for Documentary Art that presents, produces, publishes, and educates. It brings together a diverse community of activist artists, experimental media-makers, dedicated journalists, big thinkers, and local partners to search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future.
Each year, International Arts & Artists partners with UNDO to provide J-1 visa sponsorship for international fellows participating in the Collaborative Studio (CoLAB) program. This ten-month fellowship brings together individual talents, voices, and stories to create multi-dimensional documentaries. CoLAB offers a platform for these artists to explore contemporary approaches to the documentary arts and a process for developing an innovative collaborative project. The program consists of weekly production meetings, seminars, screenings and other public programs, along with regular masterclasses and critiques with visiting artists.
We recently caught up with Ansh Vohra, one of the 2017-18 CoLAB fellows, and Sarah Lerner, UNDO’s Director of Operations, to learn more about the CoLAB program and UNDO’s experience as a J-1 host organization.
We are able to host up to six international fellows and six local fellows each year as part of our CoLAB program. The opportunity is as valuable for us as it is for them, as we greatly appreciate being able to expand our documentary arts community on a global scale. We have extensive international partnerships on our public facing events and workshops by bringing together artists, journalists, critics and curators from around the world, so we feel it is important to continue the tradition within the film production side of the organization as well. One of our primary goals as part of our fellowship program is to create multi-dimensional pieces in a collaborative format, and cross-cultural exchange is one of the most effective ways to do that.
UnionDocs came into my life at a time when I was just beginning to comfortably settle into my work as a filmmaker. However, I wasn’t sure that being comfortable was the right thing to do at the age of 25. I began making film four years ago and I couldn’t help but wonder whether I’d pushed myself to have new experiences. My time here at UnionDocs has been a big step forward in overcoming that obstacle. I’ve had the opportunity to challenge my notions of what makes for a good film, and I feel as though I will come out of this opportunity a filmmaker who isn’t afraid to take risks. Additionally, living in the United States, and in New York especially, has given me the opportunity to interact with cultures that I wouldn’t otherwise be privy to back home in Delhi. I’m working on projects that focus on people of Indian, Syrian and Azeri origins, something that probably wouldn’t have been possible in any other city in the world.
I’m currently working on three documentary projects at UnionDocs, two of which I’m directing. The first one is a film that follows three immigrant narratives that originate within a 100 miles of each other in Punjab (India) and culminate in a taxi school in Queens, NY. The second one, which I’m co-directing with Daniel Sitts, is an animated film that chronicles the family history of some of the first few Syrians to arrive in the United States back in the 1890s. The third one follows an Azerbaijani family and tells the story of a generational divide between a traditionally Azeri grandmother and her American granddaughter.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. We’re a group of people you would usually have never found inside one room had it not been for a program like UnionDocs and International Arts & Artists. To work with all of them as equals, exchange ideas, collaborate on projects and become friends has been an incredible experience. I will hopefully be in touch with everyone for a long time.
Last month, IA&A’s Cultural Exchange Programs team was delighted to participate in the Global Ties U.S. National Meeting right here in Washington, DC! IA&A is a National Member of Global Ties U.S., an organization that strengthens relationships between individuals and nations by making international exchange programs more effective. As a National Member, IA&A shares the commitment to promoting a peaceful, prosperous world through international exchange.
Our team was thrilled to represent IA&A at the National Meeting and to share the findings of our International Partnership Initiative report, Art in Context: The Current State of International Cultural Engagement, at the annual event’s very first poster session.
We had a fantastic time learning about the local, national, and international efforts of Global Ties U.S. members to initiate, sustain, and drive exchange opportunities. The passion and dedication was contagious, and our team left even more inspired to advocate for exchange programs. Program Officer Chris Sciotto was happy to elaborate, saying “[Director] Jennifer Schrock and I met an incredible array of people in the exchange, arts, and culture communities. We really left feeling inspired and with such an emboldened sense of purpose and possibility for the future of cultural exchanges.”
IA&A and the Cultural Exchange Programs team looks forward to connecting with other members of the Global Ties U.S. community to promote IA&A’s mission of cross-cultural understanding. Read the report below, and we hope to see you next year!
While pursuing her law degree, Megan Shave decided to take a huge leap of faith and apply for an internship with Chain Camera Pictures. The production company behind the film The Hunting Ground, Chain Camera Pictures had inspired Megan to write her thesis on how social media can be a catalyst for change in legal culture. She had no idea that this bold leap would lead to the opportunity to work alongside the people she admired on social justice issues that she is passionate about. The fact that she was in Los Angeles, the center of the film and entertainment industry, was just a bonus!
Fast forward four months and Megan is now returning to her home country of South Africa with a newfound confidence for her own potential and a new career path. We caught up with Megan to hear about her internship, her experience living in Los Angeles, and the self-growth she experienced during her exchange program.
What could be better than one incredible cultural exchange experience? Two! Just ask Arielle Estrada, an aspiring filmmaker from France who spent the past year in San Francisco, CA, splitting her time between internships at two different host organizations. The first was at the California Film Institute (CFI), an organization that uses the power of storytelling through film as a way to educate, inspire, and entertain. While at CFI, Arielle helped to develop educational programs and manage special events, including the Mill Valley Film Festival. She also learned about the technical tools and skills necessary for video productions. At Canyon Cinema, a foundation dedicated to educating the public about independent, non-commercial, experimental, avant-garde, and artist-made moving images, Arielle was able to enhance her knowledge of film archives and preservation. Through these two distinct, yet complementary, internships Arielle was able to develop the skills that will help her become a well-rounded filmmaker.
We caught up with Arielle to hear about her exchange experience and how it has impacted her future career in filmmaking!
