Erie Arts & Culture received a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art to provide opportunities for Erie artists from Muslim countries so they may gain wider recognition here.
The grant funded school-based residencies, public performances and digital media training for 12 artists, some of whom came to Erie as refugees.
Kelly Armor, Erie Arts & Culture’s folklorist in residence, is quick to share news of the grant.
“Especially during COVID, when so much has been canceled, you can still visit these shops, see the art, and support a local business while literally tasting the bounty of Erie’s new-American cultures,” she said.
Armor said the final initiative of this grant was completing three ethnic market murals.
As she said in an email, “Erie really has a wealth of new-American artists who are hidden in plain sight. This project gave them valuable experience in sharing their story, culture and art. In the case of this mural project, the artists also made a positive impact on local businesses. The artists chose a market they wanted to partner with and collaborated with the owners in creating a design. All three markets are interesting places with a unique array of goods.”
The three artists, who each came to Erie as a refugee and worked with a market to create and install public art on its facade:
Ghadah Hussien, a graphic designer and artist from Iraq, created a mural for Almadina Market, 2325 Parade St., featuring iconic architecture from Syria, Iraq and Erie. Hussien is a fine artist and graphic designer with degrees from the University of Baghdad and Erie Institute of Technology. The market also has a guide to the mural for visitors.
Ali Alnashmi painted a mural for the UK Supermarket, 1105 Parade St., that pays homage to the new-American women of Erie. He has an art degree from the University of Baghdad. He is equally comfortable with abstract painting, interior design and portraiture.
Nialwak Athow created a mural around the doorway of Lake Erie International Market, 601 Brown Ave. Athow is a henna artist and her piece draws from the bold designs of her Sudanese henna tradition. She was assisted especially by Jennifer Peters and other women who created a mural along State Street related to the 19th Amendment.
Celebrating suffrage:Mural in downtown Erie to honor suffrage movement
More information about the three murals can be found in the Erie Arts & Culture blog at www.erieartsandculture.org/blog.
“Not only do these murals beautify Erie’s urban core, they uplift the business owners and their customers and they bring important recognition to talented artists,” Armor said.
To learn more, contact her at 814-602-0619.
Providing opportunities:New Erie murals to showcase work of minority artists
Bush’s new art book
“In this powerful new collection of stories and oil paintings, President George W. Bush spotlights the inspiring journeys of America’s immigrants and the contributions they make to the life and prosperity of our nation.”
You’ll find this introductory statement at the very top of the inside leaf of the hardcover’s jacket cover.
The 208-page publication, “Out of Many, One,” features 43 full-color Bush paintings of men and women from 35 countries and various regions around the world.
Bush’s background, historical remarks and lengthy acknowledgments make this quite the page-turner. A profile picture of the 43rd U.S. president at an easel, putting the finishing touches on an oil-on-canvas painting of his late father, President George H.W. Bush, provides the book’s frontispiece.
You’ll even find an image of the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” sonnet. The American poet and writer died in 1887.
Presidential visit:Former President George W. Bush to highlight Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit in November
Imagine the research work required for oral and written interviews. I found the profiles incredibly stirring and at times startling, to think of the paths taken to reach this land of the free. It’s surely a testimony of the progression and growth of a people when given opportunities.
The stories of migrants that unfold are carried on two or more pages alongside stylized paintings done from photographs.
Did you know former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jane Korbel in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1937? Or that Henry Kissinger, a former secretary of state, was raised by his Jewish parents in a small town in Germany? Philip Alier Machok was part of “Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan” at one point in his life before coming to the United States of America at the estimated age of 21. Roya Mahboob, an entrepreneur whose painting appears on the book’s cover, was an Afghan refugee in Iran at the age of 14.
The art book is available in local book stores. During a recent book tour, Bush appeared on the NBC morning news program “Today with Hoda and Jenna” with his daughter, Jenna Bush Hager.
Take note that former President Bush will headline the Jefferson Educational Society’s global summit series in November at Erie’s Bayfront Convention Center.
More Meg:Meg Loncharic: Photographic Arts Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania to celebrate anniversary
Now you know
Jude Shingle, one of the judges in the Jay & Mona Kang Virtual Art Show & Sale sponsored by the Barber National Institute, is the arts program director for the Erie Center for Arts & Technology.
POSTSCRIPT: “Caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), American humanitarian, political activist and longest-serving first lady of the United States.
Meg Loncharic can be reached at [email protected].