Press Release

U.S. provides funding for new grant program for artists

November 10, 2008

Two Northwest Ohio–based regional agencies, the Great Lakes Consortium for International Training and Development (GLC) and the Arts Council Lake Erie West (ACLEW) jointly announced ‘Arts Exchanges on International Issues with Tanzania,’ a new 2008-2010 grant program funded by the U. S. Department of State.

According to U.S. Cultural Affairs Officer Karen Grissette, artists, art educators and arts agency representatives held an informational meeting recently at the University of Toledo’s Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women. The program provides female artists in Northwest Ohio and Tanzania the opportunity to develop an exchange network between the two countries to collaborate on artwork and create exhibitions, address person to person issues, travel to diverse art agencies and cultural institutions, and develop strategies to empower young women artists to further advance their artistic, leadership and community goals.

The citizen exchange program goal is to create a leadership team of eight young Northwest Ohio and sixteen Tanzanian women artists who will pursue the challenge of developing respect and tolerance for women as artists who express themselves and cultivate leadership in society.

We envision that these young women artists will illustrate and provide an example for a systemic change in attitude through an on-going cross-cultural dialogue to address a wide variety of common artistic, gender, social, cultural, educational, networking and leadership issues. In the long-term, we believe that women’s educational, professional and subsequent economic empowerment will contribute to improved family welfare and nutrition, higher education goals for young women, and an improved economic growth for society as a whole.

The Citizen Exchange Program supports a variety of professional, youth, cultural, and sports exchanges to provide foreign participants with the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the United States so they can better address the challenges facing their own countries, and to offer Americans the opportunity to share their expertise and experience with their foreign counterparts and to build life-long relationships and networks.