The NYC Artist Safe Haven Residency Program (NYCASHRP) is a yearlong residency for NYC-based international artists who have faced censorship, persecution, or other threats to their freedom of expression.
This coalition-led program offers residents holistic services, including:
- Pro bono immigration assistance (Artistic Freedom Initiative),
- Customized professional development and community engagement (Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Residency Unlimited, Tamizdat, and The New School),
- Financial assistance for living expenses and artist materials (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Westbeth Artist Housing)
Mehrnam Rastegari: Senavazi
HOW IT STARTED
An innovative urban artist safety hosting program
Founded in 2017 by Artistic Freedom Initiative, Todd Lanier Lester (ArtistSafety.net / FreeDimensional), Residency Unlimited, and Westbeth Artists Housing, the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program (NYCASHRP) is an innovative urban artist safety hosting program. Arts and advocacy organizations come together to form the NYCASHRP coalition, providing holistic support for international at-risk artists who have faced censorship, persecution, or other threats to their freedom of expression.
Through this coalition, the residency offers artists legal aid, resettlement assistance, professional development, financial assistance for living expenses and artist materials, advocacy, community engagement, and other services. In 2024 and 2025, the program hosted visual artists and musicians through a coalition that includes Artistic Freedom Initiative, Residency Unlimited, Tamizdat, and Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. From 2017 through 2023, the program hosted visual artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers.
To date, our residency program has hosted twenty one artists from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Congo, Vietnam, Haiti, Uganda, India, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palestine, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan.
Comprehensive Living Assistance, Legal Support, and Professional Development
Legal Services For At-Risk Artists
In addition to managing the program as a whole, AFI provides artists in residence with legal services and support from our network of pro bono attorneys and extensive resettlement assistance that is tailored to the needs of each individual. AFI’s legal services include talent based and performance visas, asylum applications, and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs).
Living Assistance
In 2024 and 2025, the program provides financial assistance to artists in residence for their living expenses and artist materials. From 2017 through 2023, the program included free artist housing at the historic Westbeth Artists Housing community in New York City’s West Village. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s West Village, Westbeth Artists Housing is a non-profit housing complex that has provided affordable live-work space to New York City’s artists since the late 1960s. Formerly the Bell Laboratories headquarters, Westbeth was redeveloped in 1968 by the J. M. Kaplan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts into one of the world’s largest artist communities. In addition to 383 housing units, the complex includes a large gallery, theater, visual art, music, and dance studios, community room, and childcare center.
Visual Artists in Residence
Residency Unlimited and other partners provide our visual and multidisciplinary artist residents with unique, customized professional residency programming, composed of network support, project and production assistance, exhibition and public programming opportunities.
Margarita Kuleva
Margarita Kuleva is an artist, researcher, and curator. She is based in New York and teaches at NYU Arts & Science and Steinhardt. In her research and art projects, she mainly uses ethnography, institutional interventions, and performance as methods.
Fatimah Hossaini
Afghan-Tehran born artist, award-winning photographer, curator, and founder of the Mastooraat Organization, Fatimah Hossaini is a creative force whose work bridges art, identity, and advocacy.
Kabir Mokamel
Aida Sulova
Aida Sulova’s work reflects her upbringing in the Soviet Union and her experiences as a multi-disciplinary artist and independent curator from Kyrgyzstan.
Alejandro De La Guerra
Alejandro De La Guerra is a multidisciplinary artist who works on the aestheticization of power, collective memory, and monumental languages of public spaces.
Dieu-Nalio Chery
Dieu-Nalio Chery is a Haitian photographer who was born in Haiti in 1981, and is a current visual artist in residence with the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program.
Faten Gaddes
Faten Gaddes is a French/Tunisian photographer who was Born in Tunisia in 1974.
Nazanin Noroozi
Visual Artist in Residence, 2021-2022
Rashwan Abdelbaki
Rashwan Abdelbaki is a Syrian visual artist based in New York, and a former visual artist in residence with the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program.
Hadi Nasiri
Hadi Nasiri is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and activist whose work involves painting, sculpture, graphic design, performance, and political protest. From a young age, Hadi has been involved in political activism, launching the underground woman’s rights organization in Iran “Afarinesh.”
Musicians in Residence
Developed and launched by Artistic Freedom Initiative and Tamizdat, the Safe Haven Incubator for Musicians: New York City (SHIM: NYC) matches our musicians in residence with carefully selected mentors. In partnership with Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater and the Joe’s Pub Working Group, SHIM provides musicians with an opportunity to develop a specific work, hone their skills, and expand their professional network.
Mehrnam Rastegari
Mehrnam Rastegari is a well-established Persian musician, award-winning film score composer, singer, violinist, and master Kamancheh player.
Firas Zreik
Ahmad Fanoos
Ahmad Fanoos is a well-known Afghan vocalist and harmonium player, having headlined and performed in live and televised performances in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Russia, and beyond.
Lama El Homaïssi
Lama El Homaïssi (she/her) is an immigrant performer and writer from Lebanon currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
Haig Papazian
Haig Papazian is a Lebanese Armenian artist, composer, and architect born in Beirut, and a former musician in residence with SHIM:NYC.
Mai Khoi
Mai Khoi, is a Vietnamese musician and composer, and a former musician in residence at SHIM:NYC.
King Raam
King Raam is an Iranian musician, storyteller, actor, and a former musician in residence of SHIM:NYC.
Writers in Residence
From 2017 – 2023, professional development for writers & filmmakers was provided by partners including The New School, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection, Fordham University, Art Omi, and Ledig House. Opportunities included network expansion, teaching positions, and developing new work. (Note: the program is not hosting writers/filmmakers in 2024 & 2025).
Sahraa Karimi
Sahraa Karimi is a film director, scriptwriter and university Lecturer from Afghanistan.
Achiro P. Olwoch
Achiro Patricia Olwoch, hailing from Gulu in Northern Uganda, is an award-winning writer, director, and producer currently living in exile in New York.
Felix Kaputu
Felix Kaputu was a former writer in residence of the New York Artist Safe Haven Residency Program.
Kanchana Ugbabe
Kanchana Ugbabe is an Indian-Nigerian Writer and scholar, and a former writer in residence at the New York Artists Safe Haven Residency Program, during which she taught creative writing at Fordham University.
Key Coalition Partners
The New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program is generously supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for The Visual Arts, The Wilhelm Family Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Artist Safety Hosting Guide
The Artist Safety Hosting Guide was co-written by Artistic Freedom Initiative and Todd Lanier Lester (ArtistSafety.net/FreeDimensional). It was published in the fall of 2019 with support from our New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program coalition, the David Rockefeller Fund, and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. The guide offers reflections on the history, ethics, and best practices of artist safety hosting in New York City and elsewhere, tracks the development of our coalition-led residency program, and includes a section dedicated to legal assistance for at-risk artists.