About CEC ArtsLink

Our Mission
CEC ARTSLINK is an international arts organization. Our programs encourage and support exchange of artists and cultural managers between the United States and Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. We believe that the arts are a society’s most deliberate and complex means of communication, and that artists and arts administrators can help nations overcome long histories of reciprocal distrust, insularity and conflict.

With solid expertise and lasting partnerships in 30 countries, CEC ArtsLink promotes communication and understanding through collaborative, innovative projects for mutual benefit. CEC was founded in 1962 to enable citizens of the United States and the Soviet Union to accomplish what their governments could not – opening doors, sharing ideas and building mutual trust. In today’s transformed and complex world, citizen diplomacy is still urgently needed.

Click here for a short history of our organization

What We Do
Through a multi-faceted program of cultural exchange, CEC ArtsLink serves to create and sustain constructive, mutually beneficial relationships between the US and the 30 countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Working with artists, arts organizations and community-based institutions CEC ArtsLink provides an essential structure for ongoing dialogue between the US and these formerly isolated cultures.

ArtsLink Awards
Over the past 16 years, ArtsLink has made over four million dollars in funding available to US artists and arts organizations working with colleagues in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Funding is provided through ArtsLink Projects, ArtsLink Residencies and Independent Projects.

Leadership Programs
Arts Leadership Fellows
A new program for talented young arts managers from Russia and Central Asia is aimed at strengthening the arts infrastructure in these regions by stimulating exchange with their US colleagues. The Arts Leadership Fellows (ALF) program will provide advanced arts management training through short residencies at US arts organizations. The 2008 ALF targets mid-career arts managers in the fields of contemporary art and performing arts festival management. Arts managers with a limited knowledge of English will be able to participate.

Open World Cultural Leaders brings emerging cultural leaders in the arts from Russia to the US to provide them with opportunities to meet and collaborate with their counterparts and to experience firsthand American life and culture. In 2005 CEC ArtsLink expanded its role as a cross-cultural resource, advising US grantees on design and implementation of their local hosting programs. CEC ArtsLink is the host for the New York portion of all programs.

VisArt: Contemporary Issues in Arts and Culture
VisArt stimulates dialogue about contemporary issues in the arts. Projects encourage and enhance appreciation of contemporary arts, by providing artists and arts managers from Russia, Eurasia and Central Europe with opportunities to visit the United States for short residencies and study visits. Programming in the region offers workshops, performances and lectures by well known US artists including Philip Glass, Shirin Neshat, Meredith Monk and Sooja Kim; and seminars for arts professionals that stimulate discussion of trends in the arts, art history, cultural policy and management issues.

VisArt Central Asia
Cultural exchanges between Central Asian and US artists and musicians include professional residencies in the US and workshops and performances in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.