The Tongue Tracing the Hand Tracing the Earth, a dinner performance by the ArtsLink International Fellow Mirna Bamieh, Palestine, in NYC, 2021

ArtsLink International Fellowships
Phase 1: Online Research
Phase 2: In Person Residencies

Online research and immersive in person residencies with leading US cultural institutions for transnational artists, curators, and arts leaders from our network countries

The ArtsLink International Fellowships program supports pioneering artists, curators, and arts leaders from our network countries in developing their community-engaged practices in the US and transnationally. The program emphasizes the value of independent artist networks and sustained dialogue around the urgent issues facing our societies.

Priority is given to artists and arts leaders whose work expands people’s awareness, understanding, and active participation in environmental and/or social justice issues. Additional attention is given to artists and arts leaders who have been displaced from their homes or forced into exile, regardless of where they are now living.

The multi-phase Fellowship offers an online research residency hosted by leading arts organizations in the US, including Puerto Rico, and supports a subsequent in person immersive residency in the US, which may result in a follow-up project in the artist’s home country. This unique three-phase approach fosters long-term dialogue between artists and citizens across nations vital to the building of a global civil, compassionate and equitable society.

Online residencies respond to Fellows’ unique interests and provide an opportunity for initial research and connections with people, archives, collections, and other resources in preparation for their in person residencies. Simultaneously, hosts familiarize themselves with Fellows’ practices so they can effectively enable an engaged, immersive in person residency program.

In person immersive residencies build on the research and networking Fellows have developed during their online residencies. They provide an opportunity for Fellows to engage on the ground with both formal and informal connections with people, archives, collections, and other resources most relevant to expanding their practices. Hosts welcome Fellows to their cities, often inviting them to engage with public-facing and internal programs taking place on site at their organizations and across communities.

Letter of Inquiry deadline will be announced in September 2025
Hosting an ArtsLink International Fellow
Ukraine
Donetsk / Mariupol / Kyiv

From Donetsk to Mariupol to Kyiv, Ukraine, Diana Berg transformed her practice from activist to artist, curator, and cultural manager amidst war and displacement. Founder of Mariupol’s Platform Tu, she has been working with gender inequality and human rights issues through art, persisting in activism and cultural preservation after being displaced twice by war. Diana’s work exploring topics of memory and war has gained national and international recognition. At documenta fifteen, she coordinated the 3-day Ukrainian program. Diana is currently developing a project on the environmental crises in the east of Ukraine affected by Russian ecocide. She is committed to leveraging art for social justice and environmental awareness.

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Georgia
Tbilisi

Maka Chkhaidze is a cultural manager and curator. With a background as an actress, Maka’s primary interest lies in researching and using performing art as a tool in building relations between disconnected, underrepresented groups of society. In 2022, Maka founded the non-profit organization InForm – Platform for Inclusive Minds to advocate for and bring the disability narrative into the contemporary art scene in Georgia, and to link contemporary arts and disability communities. She formed an inclusive contemporary dance theater group of mixed ability dancers and actors with the goal of developing original and collaborative, local and international performing art productions, educational programs and inclusive arts community.

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Kazakhstan
Almaty

Sabina Fattakh, a Kazakh artist, DJ, and activist, navigates her creative journey through a decolonial and feminist lens, challenging hegemonic narratives while celebrating her cultural heritage. Her DJ sets serve as a form of cultural resistance, blending traditional Kazakh melodies with contemporary beats, reclaiming spaces and narratives often silenced by colonial histories. Embracing her identity as a Qumalaqshi, she incorporates traditional nomadic divination practices into her performances, grounding her art in ancestral knowledge. Through her activism, Sabina advocates for decolonization and inclusivity, working towards a world where diverse voices are heard and valued.

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Ukraine / Germany

Olha Filonchuk is a multidisciplinary artist, theater set and costume designer, and art teacher. Olha’s current practice focuses on visual, multidisciplinary art. Working with refugee communities, Olha explores the topic of forced migration, issues of national and cultural identity, and human-nature relationships using documentary data and oral history in installations, artbooks, and assemblages. She created around 50 performances in Ukraine and Europe. Olha co-founded the immersive Baby Theater for children under 3 in Kyiv. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Olha temporarily moved to Thuringen, Germany, in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

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Tajikistan
Dushanbe

Diana Rakhmanova is an artist, curator, art manager, researcher, and journalist. She is the founder of PF Cultural Center “Kuduk” in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Diana curates educational projects on eco-art, data-art and art management in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. She also creates installations, discussions and cooking-together happenings considering food as an art language of cultural exchange. Most of Diana’s work is autobiographical based on memories, search for herself, internal reflections, and the history of Tajikistan. Her work was exhibited in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and USA and included as part of the DAVRA collective at Documenta fifteen. She participated in art residencies in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia.

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Eligible Countries

Applicants must be citizens of one of the following countries:

Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan