Call for applications: Stand for Art programme in Arab countries

Launched in 2016, the programme supports the physical and mental well-being of artists and cultural actors in the Arab region to safeguard their inalienable rights to free speech and creative freedom. Towards this end, Culture Resource works to secure their right to live and work in a safe environment that upholds their dignity and ensures their ability to pursue their artistic and cultural activities. 

Culture Resource offers support in two ways:

The Emergency Fund

This grant covers the following types of financial support:

• Living expenses (including accommodation expenses) in any country in the Arab region or abroad for up to six months.
• A round-trip flight ticket to any country in the Arab region or abroad and related travel expenses.
• Expenses for professional legal advice or hiring lawyers.
• Other types of support that require expenditure such as medical or psychiatrist fees, enrolment fees for a skills development programme, etc.

Non-monetary support

This includes the following:

• Putting beneficiaries in touch with short-term artistic residencies in the Arab region or abroad to guarantee them a temporary safe haven where they can live and work, or putting them in touch with organisations that offer residencies so that they (beneficiaries) can apply themselves.
• Putting beneficiaries in contact with international organisations that support artists at risk or that offer them temporary residency in a host country. Backing their applications to these organisations as well as to rights advocacy organisations and lawyers for free legal support and advice.

Who can apply?

Applicants must be artists and cultural actors originating from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Eligibility

The following individuals can apply for the programme:

• Artists or cultural actors who are in physical danger because of their artistic or cultural expression or production.
• Artists or cultural actors who, regardless of their artistic and cultural activities, are in peril or who are seeking asylum due to socio-political violence, warfare, political instability, displacement or environmental disasters and public health emergencies.
• Artists or cultural actors who are unable to sustain their artistic and cultural activities due to precarious economic, psychological, environmental, health or legal circumstances.

Requirements

• The applicant must originate from an Arab country regardless of ethnicity and citizenship status or whether they are currently residing in the Arab region or abroad.
• The applicant must be an artist or a cultural actor.
• The applicant must be in peril or face a tangible and verifiable threat.

Application process

• Interested applicants should send an email to artist@mawred.org explaining their case.
• The programme team will then send an application form that should be filled out in Arabic only.
• Once the accuracy of the information contained in the application is verified, the programme team and the programme’s advisory board will determine the type of support that is commensurate with the severity and urgency of the case.
• The programme team will then notify the applicant whether or not he/she has been accepted. If accepted, the applicant will be informed of the type of support that the programme will provide.
• After the applicant agrees to the proposed support, an agreement is signed between Culture Resource and the beneficiary.

The application process is ongoing.

For more information about the Stand for Art programme, email info@mawred.org.

View the original call here.