Our Resettlement Assistance program guides at-risk artists as they navigate the relocation process and provides support as they reestablish themselves professionally.
At-risk artists who experience forced displacement and relocation typically arrive in a new city suddenly and unexpectedly, without resources, a plan of action, or a community to act as a safety net upon arrival. They have often experienced trauma in conjunction with their displacement. As a result, for most at-risk artists, it takes time to re-stabilize.
Our Resettlement Assistance program guides at-risk artists as they navigate the relocation process and provides support as they reestablish themselves professionally.
Our Resettlement Assistance programs guide at-risk artists as they navigate the relocation process and provide support as they reestablish themselves professionally.
The Artist Community Network (ACN) is an artist-led initiative designed to facilitate peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, professional development, partnership-building, and artistic and networking events for the artists within AFI’s NYC-based community.
The New York City 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.
Through our resettlement program, AFI has placed artists and cultural workers at universities including George Mason University, New York Film Academy, and Bennington College. Through our partnership with The New University in Exile Consortium, we’ve co-created yearlong, customized fellowships at The New School for six Afghan artists.
An artist’s creative process can often be restored only after other vital factors governing daily life have stabilized. Our Resettlement Assistance program provides holistic support to US-based artists in our network as they navigate meeting emergent personal, logistical, professional, and legal needs post-relocation. AFI’s resettlement team leverages organizational partnerships and referrals to connect artists with professional development opportunities, mental and physical well-being resources, emergency funding and grant programs, immigrant services, and more.
AFI’s resettlement team helps US-based artists within AFI’s network obtain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and Social Security Numbers. We also support artists’ logistical needs by working with them to build a personalized resettlement plan, which includes customized resources for their needs, including professional development, logistical support, and social services.
During her residency with AFI and Residency Unlimited, Margarita Kuleva developed INHALE/EXHALE, a new installation that uses large helium balloons to explore migration as both an embodied identity and a bureaucratic process. This work is grounded in her self-ethnographic research and interviews with artists and academics displaced for political reasons.
Margarita is an artist, educator, and curator. Her work examines social inequalities in artistic production and access to culture through ethnography, performance, and institutional interventions.
Margarita Culeva, 2025, INHALE/EXHALE [Installation View]
Margarita Culeva, 2025, INHALE/EXHALE [Installation View]
Margarita Culeva, 2025, INHALE/EXHALE [Installation View]
If you are an artist facing risk, persecution, or displacement, learn how AFI can support you and how to apply.