New York City Safe Haven Program
In 2017, the historic Westbeth Artists Housing community in New York City’s West Village offered a block of apartments to provide safe housing for at-risk artists. A group of arts and advocacy organizations formed a coalition around these apartments, creating an innovative prototype for urban artist safety hosting that would become the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program.
This Residency Program was developed in response to the complex challenges inherent in supporting threatened artists. Recognizing that no single institution or service provider can adequately address every aspect of support required for threatened artists, a coalition of organizations was formed to provide this support collectively. This coalition is growing, but currently includes the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI), ArtistSafety.net, Fordham University, Artists at Risk Connection, Residency Unlimited, Tamizdat, and Westbeth Artist Housing. Each of these organizations brings substantial experience and is well-positioned to apply a unique skill set, which includes providing housing, legal services, professional development, community engagement, and access to psychosocial support. In this manner, the coalition is able to successfully respond to the intersecting needs of artists under threat.
The residency program is designed to house, integrate, and nurture artists at risk, with placements ranging from six months up to two years.
By fall 2021, the program will have provided residency placements to twelve at-risk artists from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Congo, Vietnam, Haiti, Uganda, India, Tunisia and Nigeria.
In offering at-risk artists the opportunity to relocate to New York City, this program supports important voices for free expression, tolerance, creative cultural exchange, and international understanding. The coalition and its partners are committed to working with resident artists to support their campaigns for social justice both during their stay in New York City and beyond.
Fellows:
Nazanin Noroozi is a New York-based artist who was born in Tehran, Iran, and a current visual artist in residence at the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program. Her work explores themes of the archive, technology, and family. Noroozi’s work has been widely exhibited in both Iran and the United States, including the Immigrant Artist Biennial, Noyes Museum of Art, NY Live Arts, Prizm Art Fair, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYFA IAP 2018, Mass MoCA Residency, and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Residency. She is an editor at large of Kaarnamaa, a Journal of Art History and Criticism. Noroozi completed her MFA in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute. Her works have been featured in various publications and media including BBC News Persian, Elephant Magazine, Financial Times, and Brooklyn Rail.
Haig Papazian is a Lebanese Armenian artist, composer, and architect born in Beirut, and a former musician in residence with SHIM:NYC. He is a founding member and violinist of Mashrou’ Leila, the Lebanese pop band whose electro-pop anthems about political freedoms, race, and modern Arabic identity have challenged the status quo of the Middle-Eastern music industry. Their politically-charged lyrics have led to the band experiencing censorship and persecution in many countries, brought on by religious and state authorities, as well as popular outcry. Many of the band’s appearances, including concerts and speaking engagements, have been forcibly canceled by the regulating authorities.
Alongside Mashrou’ Leila, Haig has performed at sold-out venues and festivals across the Arab region, Europe, and North America. He’s been an artist in residence at NYU; has campaigned with Greenpeace in an initiative to promote solar energy across the Mediterranean, and has participated in the BLOCK 9 & BANKSY Creative Retreat alongside Brian Eno, Roisin Murphy, and more. He has held public talks at NYU, Columbia University, Concordia, Darmouth College, Sciences Po, and has recently performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of Oliver Beer’s Vessel Orchestra. Haig has recently published an op-ed in the New York Times on the cost of being queer and Arab and for France Culture, a love letter in the form of an essay to “Beyrouth et Beyrouth, travail en cours.”
Partners:
Artist at Risk Connection is an international hub of more than 700 organizations working to protect artistic freedom works to deepen, expand, and improve the resources available to artists who face violence, harassment, and threats because of their creative work. ARC provides the at-risk writers in residence the opportunity to teach as a Writer at Risk in Residence in Fordham University’s Creative Writing Program.
Artistic Freedom Initiative is a group of human rights activists, lawyers, academics, and artists working together to advance and promote artistic freedom and peaceful dialogue through art. All visual artists, writers, and musicians in residence receive legal services and support from AFI’s pro bono attorneys.
ArtistSafety.net is a volunteer and consultancy network that provides case management for artists at risk due to their work. On local, regional, and international levels, volunteers collaborate to provide peer advocacy and emergency response. ArtistSafety.net has provided strategic development support to the coalition and the program as a whole.
Fordham University, founded in 1841, is New York City’s only Jesuit university. Fordham University’s spirit comes from the nearly 500-year history of the Jesuits. It’s the spirit of full-hearted engagement—with profound ideas, with communities around the world, with injustice, with beauty, with the entirety of the human experience.
Residency Unlimited supports contemporary art through its unique residency program (NY-based, national, and international exchanges) and year-round public programs. It facilitates connections in and outside of the art world, offers hands-on production and technical assistance, and provides professional development opportunities. RU provides the visual and multidisciplinary artist residents with unique, customized professional residency programming, composed of network support, project and production assistance, exhibition, and public programming opportunities.
Tamizdat, facilitates and advocates for international artist mobility and cultural exchange. Driven by the conviction that the international mobility and exchange of culture is fundamental to a healthy and progressive civil society, Tamizdat seeks through its program activities to assist the international performing arts community to address problems presented by international borders, and U.S. visa policies and procedures.
Westbeth Artists Housing is a facility designed with the intention of providing affordable living and working spaces for artists and their families in New York City. Each resident is provided with a live/work studio at Westbeth Artists Housing, a thriving and diverse community of artists.