ACN IS
An artist-led initiative
The 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. This initiative is designed to empower artists to support each other as co-creators, organizers, and friends. With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the ACN launched in 2025 as a one-year pilot program.
What we offer
The 2025 ACN Cohort
- Receives monthly stipends to support their living expenses.
- Participates in peer-to-peer mentorship, knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and network building.
- Receives customized professional development from two of AFI’s New York City-based partner arts and cultural organizations based on collectively determined interests and goals.
- Learns best practices for digital archiving and online security to support their individual artistic practice.
- Collaboratively develops artistic events to showcase their work.
- Build out a virtual newsletter for immigrant artist peers from AFI’s network to share resources and experiences as they navigate displacement and resettlement.
- Creates a sustainable artist-led community.
ACN Visual Arts Cohort Exhibition
Developing
The Artist Community Network
From a pool of qualified applicants, AFI has selected six early-to-mid-career artists from Burma, Iran, Turkey, Uganda, and Lebanon to participate in the initial ACN cohort. The application process assessed artists’ positionality, duration of stay in the United States, involvement in respective arts communities, commitment to community building, and proof of artistic excellence.
Now in various stages of resettlement in New York City, these AFI artists form a cohort. Rooted in their respective creative practices and shared experiences with displacement, artists will be supported for one year with a monthly living stipend and continued pro bono immigration and resettlement support from AFI. The cohort is split into two discipline-specific “pods” of three artists each, one for Visual Artists and one for Writers.
Meet the ACN Cohort
Artist Community Network
Nazanin Noroozi
Visual Artist in Residence, 2021-2022
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.
Bart Was Not Here
Bart Was Not Here is a Burmese artist in exile based in New York
Lama El Homaïssi
Lama El Homaïssi (she/her) is an immigrant performer and writer from Lebanon currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
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