ArtRole is a UK based contemporary arts organisation dedicated to building a cultural bridge between the Middle East and the UK. It works to establish more harmonious connections through the medium of art and art education.
ArtRole was founded in 2004 by British artist of Kurdish-Iraqi origin, Adalet R. Garmiany and registered as a Limited Company in early 2009. Since its inception ArtRole Ltd has worked to develop an annual programme of arts activity in both the UK and Iraq, including international artist exchanges, artist residencies, exhibitions, performances, presentations, conferences and workshops.
ArtRole's Key Objectives:
• To make a positive contribution to the cultural, artistic and educational life of the Middle East through
establishing a regular programme of cross-cultural arts activity between the UK and Middle
East, including artist exchanges, residencies, presentations and workshops
• To provide the opportunity to UK artists to visit the Middle East and develop new work
• To provide facilitation tools, resources and materials to learning institutions in the Middle
East that enable art education activity
• To raise the awareness of environmental and regeneration issues to communities in the
Middle East through art and art education
ArtRole has successfully organised and delivered an artist exchange programme and related educational activities between the UK, America and Iraq-Kurdistan. ArtRole now looks to establish a regular art and art education programme with existing and new partners and to widen its remit to include activities with other Middle Eastern countries. As part of this, ArtRole is exploring ways of stabilizing company activity through revenue support and appropriate legal and management structures.
ArtRole's board members are:
Adalet R.Garmiany (Chief Executive, artist, musician and curator), Anna Bowman (director, artist, educator and curator), Manik Govinda (director,editor,project management,curator), Adam Knights (artist,director,visual arts projects manager).
Members
David Priestman (artist, filmmaker and audio visual co-cordinator), in the UK.
Iraq representatives:
Baghdad, middle and southern Iraq
Falah Shakarchi(artist, lecture, art critic)
Erbil
Hemin Hamid (artist, director and lecturer)
Serbest Raza (film-maker, director, editor)
Sulaymaniyah
Shaho Abdul Rahman (artist, designer)
Sherko Abbas (artist, curator)
ArtRole Ltd. is a non-profit organisation.
Company No. 6827405