Creating International Dialogue with a Residency

Aiming to create a cultural dialogue between the Middle East and the western world, Edge of Arabia has created a residency for artists based in the MENA region.

The progamme supports artists from the Middle East and North Africa, providing them with platforms in New York City to promote their art, share their work with new audiences and collaborate with locally based artists.

Edge of Arabia turned to Zealous to manage hundreds of submissions across the entire MENA region. They saved time by:

• Automating their schedule – allowing them to open and close submissions across all timezones simultaneously.
• Selecting the right artists easily with visual entries shown alongside the application form required for the residency.
• Sending the results at the touch of a button.

Edge of Arabia selected artist Sara Ouhaddou, whose work celebrates the craft of artisans in her local community in Morocco.

During her residency, Sara aimed to partner with small-scale glass artisans in Brooklyn to explore adaptations of her designs in glass. This ancient practice has been abandoned in Morocco. Ouhaddou hopes to bring them back and help revive them through her work and with the help of local craftsmen.