As an award-winning actress, director, educator and artistic director of ASHTAR Theater, Iman Aoun deals with socio-political issues in Palestine to raise audience awareness and create social change. Since 2004, she has worked with community groups using Theater of the Oppressed techniques and has conducted specialized training workshops for theater students regionally and internationally. Among the numerous projects she has created, produced or directed is The Gaza Mono-Logues, which collected stories from thirty-three youth describing their experiences living under siege in Gaza.

Iman was interested in working with diverse ethnic communities in the US, particularly Native American communities, and in learning strategies to incorporate mythology and history into theater productions.

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Assil Ayyash has served as stage manager for The (B)IM Project which produced 10,453 km2, a site-specific play about the problems of pollution and endangered coastlines in Lebanon. The performances took place on boardwalks in several cities and utilized recycled materials gathered by local communities for the sets, costumes and props. She has also been active as an actress and singer, producer of festivals, theater and music and a theater teacher and director. During her residency, she wanted to take part in international and socially-conscious projects to gain new perspectives on theater management.

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Curator and author, Adela Demetja is the founder of Tirana Art Lab (TAL) – a leading independent contemporary art institution that engages in a wide range of collaborative activities with art institutions and academic structures in Albania and South Eastern Europe. TAL promotes emerging artists through the programming of public events, residencies, exhibitions and lectures.

Alongside her work with TAL, Adela has curated and managed numerous international exhibitions and events in Europe. In 2015 she was a co-curator of the 3rd Project Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 Ark Underground and in 2016 she was appointed curator of Focus: Ex-Yugoslavia and Albania at viennacontemporary international art fair in Austria. She was also Artistic Director of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival.

During her residency in the US, Adela intended to gain familiarity with administration, fundraising, and the strategic development aspects of US arts organizations. She was also eager to meet artists, curators and arts professionals for future collaborations.

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A digital media artist and documentary filmmaker, Anna Dziapshipa explores identity, borders, personal and collective memory and notions of home through digital storytelling. She is a founder of the Abkhazian Virtual Archive – a web portal, reconstructing documents from the State Archive in Sokhumi, Abkhazia, that were destroyed during the armed conflict in the early 1990s.

Anna also founded the documentary film company Sakdoc Film supporting documentary filmmaking that reflects on processes currently taking place in Georgia’s post-Soviet transition. She contributes to the online multimedia platform Chai Khana giving voice to under-represented women, rural communities, minority groups, and conflict-affected communities in the Caucasus.

During her residency in the US, Anna planned to take advantage of the distance from the stories of her home country and explore new angles of communication through collaborations with local artists and communities.

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As chairman of the Music and Art Support Foundation, Sandra Zandberg is deeply involved with all phases of the organization’s work including artistic direction, strategic planning, finances and fundraising. She also produces a bi-monthly music magazine and creates and organizes The Introvert Art Festival, Ad Lucem. The goal of this festival is to refocus attention from external stimuli to internal shared human values and connections.

Sandra was interested in meeting musicians, artists and producers for possible participation in the Ad Lucem Festival and in becoming acquainted with artistic developments and arts management practices in the US.

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