Filming in Cairo for smARTpower

Cairo, Egypt was RAVA’s latest destination. We were there just a few weeks ago filming a short documentary on the Egypt-segment of the smARTpower series. smARTpower, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by The Bronx Museum of the Arts, sends 15 U.S. artists abroad to work with local artists and young people around the world to create community-based art projects. The initiative, designed to create cross-cultural dialogue and greater understanding through the visual arts, is the subject and theme of RAVA’s biggest non-fiction project so far, a 15-episode short documentary series recounting the experiences and setbacks of the program and the people who participated in it.

The artist-scholar Arturo Lindsay was selected to represent the U.S. in this program and to carry out a contemporary art theory and practice workshop with young Egyptian emerging artists based on the concept of “Bearing Witness” (to the Egyptian revolution.) The workshop culminated in a multi-media exhibition with the works of art of the 15 workshop participants.