Dear friends and colleagues,
and those who are interested in art, culture and public health issues,
The AFEW International would like to bring to your attention a new project: the AFEW Culture Initiative.
The AFEW International culture initiative was launched in 2017 by the AFEW International with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. We conceived our program dedicated to the issues of culture and providing an art residence as a platform that will complement the collected experience of advocacy, education and awareness-raising campaigns on health in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).
Art works of our six artists will be exhibited in various cultural institutions in Amsterdam from May to July, 2018, and will also be presented at the final large-scale exhibition to be held during the 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) on 23-27 July, 2018. This exhibition will take place in the Conference Global Village and will be open to all visitors.
Curator's overview and goals
Our organization believes that art and culture are important sources of information beyond the traditional paradigm of health care organizations and, at the same time, art and culture provide public with better access to information channels and diverse points of view.
The culture initiative is an innovative list of opportunities for conducting productive and extremely needed discussions, as well as initiating intercultural dialogue between previously unrelated spheres. The latter include science and education, medical research, visual arts, cultural institutions, general public and social activists, as well as other supporting communities.
Providing representative critical understanding of issues that we work with is becoming increasingly important in the current socio-political environment, where lopsided and dualistic image of the East and West is dominated in all kinds of mass media. The acute problems associated with HIV / AIDS and health are being used as propaganda tools of political considerations both in Netherlands and in EECA countries, as well as around the world.
On the background of ideological polarization and current epidemiological crisis that are excessively affecting the EECA region in the context of newly identified infections associated with HIV / STI infections, we urgently need a new approach to promote more effective cooperation between the regions and communities.
We invite you to our site, where you can learn more about the interests, motivation and stories that stand behind the work of our artists and partner institutions. Sign up for our newsletter (published every 2 months) and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, to keep up with the latest news, interviews, press releases and announcements on cooperation.
«Culture initiative», site: https://www.AFEW-cultureinitiative.org
«Culture initiative», Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AFEWcultureinitiative