ART JAMEEL, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH EDGE OF ARABIA, WERE PROUD TO AWARD THEIR FIRST RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT THE PRESTIGIOUS ELIZABETH FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (EFA) TO HUSAM AL-SAYED, A SAUDI BASED PALESTINIAN FILMMAKER, AND SALAR, A DUBAI BASED, IRANIAN MULTIDICIPLINARY ARTIST AND ELECTRONIC COMPOSER.

From February to May, 2015 the two artists lived, created and presented new work in New York City. The residency included access to EFA's Studio spaces, introductions to artists and curators through studio visits and collaborations, accommodation and travel costs, as well as a stipend for living expenses in New York.

These ongoing residency programs aim to connect Middle Eastern artists with new audiences, and to explore interconnected stories that link ideas and people across physical and psychological borders.

OUTCOMES & EVALUATION

• During the EFA residency Husam Al-Sayed directed and shot a number of short films, one of which, Little Syria, was accompanied by an original scores by SALAR. Watch full film below

• Little Syria and related films and music were screened at a dedicated event at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts as well as at the Queens Museum and The Armory Show Open Forum. The film was launched through Edge of Arabia's US Tour online broadcast platform, FREEWAY.
• SALAR released a number of podcasts during his residency including PLAYTIME: LITTLE SYRIA, which speculates the sound tracks one might have heard in the vanished Arabic enclave in New York which was the center of Levantine immigrant life from the late 1800s through the 1940s. Listen to PLAYTIME: LITTLE SYRIA below.

• Husam Al Sayed participated in CULTURUNNERRS panel at the Armory Show Open Forum on March 6th, 2015 and A FREE WAY at Columbia University on April 23, 2015.