On facilitating entry of foreign master artists to the US

Hello Culturalistas!

I have just learned of a petition for a "Cultural Exchange and Free Trade Agreement to permit temporary visits for the purposes of cultural exchange by acknowledged experts in traditional arts among countries participating in this agreement". This may interest many of you who come to the US or who bring artists to the US. This initiative is the brainchild of Ed Pearlman, performer and teacher of Scottish styles and active in the celtic and fiddle communities. He has put out this petition for people to sign to eventually be presented to Congress for legislation to be passed for an easing of requirements to bring master artists to the US. In his words, "cultural exchange would be facilitated by low visa fees, quick turnaround for approval of a visa, and flexibility for the visiting experts to add engagements without submitting contracts or dates for approval in advance". His main gripe is with the current system which focuses on commercial criteria and makes it tedious and expensive to get a visa for a cultural exchange visit.

I remember once at UCLA hosting a group of Kurdish musicians from Iraq- this was in 2003. They were sent to us by the State Department, but even they could not get visas for all the musicians from the Department of Homeland Security. This happened too when I toured the US with the Daqqa Roudania of Morocco and other international groups for the Fes Festival. We could not get visas for all the Moroccan artists. While these were based on terrorism concerns mainly, they speak for the difficulty in bringing people from "other" cultures for short artistic visits.

In his manifesto, Perlman says: "An important component of family and community gatherings among immigrant populations in the US involves music and other cultural traditions from home countries. To take one of countless examples, a large percentage of immigrants to New England in the past 50 years have come from the Canadian Maritimes. Their strong cultural ties include bringing talented Canadian family and friends in for community dances, concerts, performances, and workshops. These cultural exchanges are severely handicapped by visa controls aimed exclusively at controlling commercial activity. Similar examples could be cited in many areas of the US involving Irish, Hispanic, Asian, African, and other ethnic groups whose communities are closely linked to cultural tradition."

It's worth a full read. If you like what you see, make sure to sign it! If you have stories related to this, do share here!

Tags: Ed Pearlman, artistic exchange visa, cultural exchange visa, foreign artists, traditional music

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Comment by Cindy Wang on October 2, 2010 at 9:06pm: Lasr week end I saw an exhibtion at the Taiepi Fine Arts Museum of a local well-know photo-video artist Chen Jie-Ren.
Very impressive show.
In one of the room, he expressed his feeling on people from trying to get a visa for the US.
This video came from his own experience to get a visa. He was invited for a shoe in the US, and when he went to get the visa, people were so rude that he didn't want to go anymore.
Why Taiwanese need a visa when US citizen coming to Taiwan don't need it for short stay.

http://www.tfam.museum/03_Exhibitions/Default.aspx?imgTime=&PKI...