Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

IARP was featured in a February 22 article in the Sun Post, “Nonprofit with St. Louis Park ties seeks to help repair Iraq.” Excerpted from the article:

“The aftermath of intensive American military involvement in Iraq is ongoing, but a Minnesota group has been seeking to heal rifts for years.

St. Louis Park resident Kathy McKay helped found the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project in 2007. The nonprofit aims to use art, education, health and cultural exchange programs to build bridges between the people of Iraq and the United States, according to its goals. The group also seeks to support Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq and to raise awareness in the United States about the wellbeing and culture of Iraqis…”

To read the full article, click here.

Check out this blog post review of IARP’s exhibit NOT ABOUT BOMBS from exhibit co-sponsor World Relief Minnesota. The exhibit closing reception and talk with three of the featured artists is on March 2 at 7:00pm at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis: http://www.facebook.com/events/321320347919620/.

“World Relief Minnesota is a sponsor for ‘Not About Bombs,’ an art exhibit by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project featuring the works of five Iraqi women.  Today, I stopped by the Intermedia Arts Center to see the exhibit for myself.

‘Not About Bombs’ was created as an opportunity for female Iraqi artists to create art from their own perspective, foregoing the stock themes of war and violence in favor of a more internal, intimate exploration of identity and change in the aftermath of conflict.  Five artists have displayed their work: Sundus Abdul Hadi, Tamara Abdul Hadi, Julie Adnan, Dena Al-Adeeb, and Sama Alshaibi.  It’s a small exhibit in a small space, but the works are both strong and thought-provoking.

In Julie Adnan’s The Cloth Speaks, a beautiful model dons a variety of outfits: a sweater, a sundress, and a negligee, but also a burqa, a niqab, and in one frame, she clutches an assault rifle, with a jihadist slogan scrawled across her forehead.  In the next frame, she is back in jeans and a blouse, but with a kaffiyeh worn around her neck, for fashion as much as for making a political statement.  The model is French, not Arab, and her expression and posture is the same in each frame, yet each picture evokes a different emotional response, a different stereotype.  Whether we see her as confident or demure, immodest or oppressed, kind or threatening, it is her coverings that we judge her by…”

To read the rest of the post, click here.

To support this exhibit through our Kickstarter campaign, click here.

With 3 days left to reach our Kickstarter goal of $4,000 to bring Iraqi women artists Sundus Abdul Hadi, Tamara Abdul Hadi, and Dena Al-Adeeb to Minneapolis for artists’ talks and collaboration, we’re in crunch mode. We’ve had $1,055 pledged so far and  the deadline is 9:00pm CST on Thursday, March 1. If you’ve already made a pledge, thank you! This project is only possible with your support. Please also consider sharing the project with your friends and colleagues.

If you haven’t already, please consider making a pledge to support this project. Every amount helps bring us closer to covering the costs of bringing these three amazing artists to Minneapolis for artists’ talks and collaboration.

“Baghdadi Mem/Wars” by Sama Alshaibi and Dena Al-Adeeb. Dena is one of the featured artists we are bringing to Minneapolis.

More »

After a few days, we’re making progress toward the $4,000 we need to bring three amazing Iraqi women artists to Minneapolis. We’ve had 16 donors pledge $640 so far.

All of the artists in NOT ABOUT BOMBS participated in short interviews with the curator, Tricia Khutoretsky, before the show opened on February 3, 2012. Since Sundus Abdul Hadi is one of the participating artists we’re hoping to bring to Minneapolis, I’m copying her interview here (below an image of hers from her Flight series):

More »

In early 2011, we didn’t know what a Kickstarter campaign was. But we needed to raise $5,000 to make a Minnesota tour of our Iraqi and American art campaign, Navigating the Aftermath, possible, so we decided to try it. We were amazed by the response. Sixty-three donors helped us raise $5,200 through Kickstarter in just a few weeks. That Kickstarter project can be seen here, and a post about the final report here. If you are one of those donors, thank you for making a very rich experience possible for Minnesotans across the state. We are currently in a strategic planning process to determine how to build on the very positive response we received during the tour’s seven Minnesota stops.

Images: various from the “Navigating the Aftermath” tour around Minnesota.

The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) is also pleased to announce plans to bring three amazing Iraqi women artists from our new exhibit, Not About Bombs, to Minneapolis on March 2-4 for public artist talks and collaboration, but we need your help! We must raise $4,000 by March 1 to bring Sundus Abdul Hadi, Tamara Abdul Hadi, and Dena Al-Adeeb to Minneapolis. Will we be able to reach $4,000 by March 1? Please consider backing the project on Kickstarter and supporting Iraqi women artists! Every contribution is important to make it to $4,000.