• Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Slide
    Photo care of The Tributary Fund
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    In isolation, it is impossible for an artist to see the real position and value of his or her art.
    Fritzie Brown, Executive Director, CEC ArtsLink
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Slide
    Eli Keszler
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Although, in theory, travel and communication should be easier than when TMU was founded in 1984, the economic and political hurdles for true collaboration are still extremely great.
    Steve Dubiel, Executive Director, Earthcorps
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
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    Photo care of Link Vostok
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Together, we create something new.
    Robert Wilson, Artistic Director, Watermill Center
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Slide
    Photo by Pavel Antonov
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    It is always important for artists and scholars to challenge themselves and their own assumptions about the world and the work they do in it.
    Kara Walker, Artist, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation/CCA Ujazdowski Castle American Seasons
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Slide
    Photo by Nick Hall
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    We see that we are not alone in our work—we see that people living in different parts of the world are working to solve the same kinds of issues we are. We have shared problems, but the approaches to solving them can be very different.
    Sergei Berezniuk, Pacific Environment Agricultural Fires exchange participant
  • Trust for Mutual Understanding
    Slide
    Photo by Joel Berger

TRUST FOR MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

MISSION

The Trust for Mutual Understanding awards grants to American nonprofit organizations to support direct exchange in the arts and the environment between professionals from the United States and TMU’s geographic region: the Baltic States; Central Asia; Central, East, Southeast Europe; Mongolia; and Russia.

Priority consideration is given to projects that involve direct, in-depth professional interaction, with the potential for sustained collaboration; that show evidence of professional accomplishment and innovation; and/or that respond to social contexts and engage local communities.

HISTORY

The Trust for Mutual Understanding was established in 1984 by an anonymous American philanthropist as a private, grantmaking organization dedicated to promoting improved communication, closer cooperation, and greater respect between the people of the United States, the Soviet Union, and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. TMU’s program reflects her conviction that grantmaking can make a contribution to that process by supporting international face-to-face contact and professional interaction. TMU’s mission has been shaped by the belief that creative international collaboration encourages global harmony.

TMU continues to support East-West exchanges in the arts and environment, reflecting the founder’s appreciation of the importance of culture and ecology in people’s lives. Before 1985, there was relatively little American funding for such activities, and what support there was—mainly governmental—was often restricted by political considerations. It remains TMU’s goal to enable talented people to come together from different countries to freely share ideas and stimulate creativity in a nonpolitical context.

GRANTEES

2017 Cultural Grants

$1,010,950

Total Grants
in 2017

$625,350

Cultural Grants
in 2017

36

Cultural Grants
in 2017

2017 Cultural Grants

18th Street Arts Center

18th Street Arts Center

Santa Monica, CA

$10,000

to support a three-month residency for Polish artist Aleksandra Walaszek as part of 18th Street Arts Center’s Visiting International Artists Residency Program from August to November 2017.
Abrons Arts Center

Abrons Arts Center

New York, NY

$12,000

to support Croatian choreographer Jasna Vinovrski’s participation in a two-week residency at Abrons Arts Center, resulting in the staging and premiere of Staying Alive in November 2017.
American Center for Mongolian Studies

American Center for Mongolian Studies

Bellingham, WA

$10,000

to support four bilateral cultural heritage resource management exchanges in 2017 between Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California, Mongolia’s Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, and the University of Texas-Austin’s Environmental and Archeology Laboratory.
Bard College

Bard College

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

$12,000

to support a one-month residency at Bard College for Russian composer Alexander Bakshi and music director Lyudmila Bakshi that will include master classes in composition and the staging of A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya with Bard’s Theater & Performance Program under the direction of New York puppet artist Amy Trompetter in October 2017.
Baryshnikov Arts Center

Baryshnikov Arts Center

New York, NY

$25,000

to provide supplemental support for a multi-city, US tour of Hungarian theater ensemble Bela Pinter and Company’s production of Our Secrets in January 2017.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn, NY

$10,000

to bring Uzbek filmmaker Saodat Ismailova and six company members of Aga Khan Music Initiative to present the multimedia production Qyrq Qyz in March 2018.
Brooklyn Arts Exchange

Brooklyn Arts Exchange

Brooklyn, NY

$5,000

to send Fritzie Brown and Ivan Talijancic to Croatia to attend planning meetings for the Alliance of Croatian Cultural Organizations and to conduct a workshop at Unicult in Rijeka, Croatia in summer 2017.
Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation

Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation

Watermill, NY

$15,000

to bring three emerging, multidisciplinary artists from Eastern/Southeastern Europe and Russia as a part of the International Summer Program in July and August 2017.
Causa Artium

Causa Artium

New York, NY

$1,150

to bring Artmossphere Biennale founder Sabina Chagina from Moscow, Russia to New York City to participate in lectures and related programming at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University in March 2017.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$9,000

to send New York-based curator Kendal Henry and artist Matthew Mazzotta to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to participate in the Platform Art Prospect Festival of public art in September 2017.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$20,000

to send New School professor and curator Thomas Werner and four US-based artists to St. Petersburg, Russia for ten days to create site-specific work with local museums in July 2017 and to present the works in PRO ARTE’s Contemporary Art in the Traditional Museum Festival in September 2017.
Center for Traditional Music and Dance

Center for Traditional Music and Dance

New York, NY

$15,000

to bring two Roma musicians from Macedonia to take part in a symposium entitled Beyond Gypsy Stereotypes: Voicing Romani Pluralities in New York City in April 2018 and to perform at the annual Voice of Roma Herdeljezi Festival in San Francisco in May 2018.
City of Asylum Pittsburgh

City of Asylum Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

$10,000

to support a five-day residency and performances by Polish jazz musicians Krzysztof Dys, Hubert Zemler, and Waclaw Zimpel as part of City of Asylum Pittsburgh’s annual Jazz Poetry Month from September 9October 9, 2017.
Creative Time

Creative Time

New York, NY

$19,000

to support Russian and Central and Eastern European participation in the Creative Time Summit from September 30October 1, 2017 in Toronto, Canada.
Dancers' Group

Dancers' Group

New York, NY

$10,000

to send dancers Miriam Wolodarski and Rosemary Hannon from Berkeley, California to Krakow, Poland for performances of Crane & Crocodile: Domestic Interrogations in August 2017, and to bring Krakow-based artist Tomasz Foltyn of Lamella House of Queer Arts to Berkeley, California to workshop and perform a new collaborative piece in October 2017.
DFBRL8R

DFBRL8R

Chicago, IL

$2,000

to support Elana Katz’s live performance Running on Empty as part of the Spaced Memory project in Belgrade, Serbia in May 2017.
Every house has a door

Every house has a door

Chicago, IL

$18,000

to support a three-part exchange between Every house has a door, Chicago-based performance and technology collective ATOM-r, and Prague’s Handa Gote Theatre for collaborative performances and workshops in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chicago, Illinois; and Prague, Czech Republic in fall 2017 and spring 2018.
FACT/SF

FACT/SF

San Francisco, CA

$15,000

to support Charles Slender-White’s Integrated Exchange, a two-week tour of his new piece on Roma identity to three cities in Bulgaria, including master classes, workshops with Roma communities, and post-performance discussions coordinated with local partners in October 2018.
Fractured Atlas

Fractured Atlas

New York, NY

$2,200

to support Tjasa Ferme’s performances of Wild Child In the City at the Monoakt Festival in Peja, Kosovo and the LUDI Festival in Orel, Russia in June 2017.
Fractured Atlas

Fractured Atlas

New York, NY

$30,000

to support American Dance Abroad’s Spotlight USA, a platform highlighting ten early to mid-career American choreographers in 20 fully produced performances across multiple venues, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from April 22—26, 2018.
Free History Project

Free History Project

San Francisco, CA

$30,000

to support ArKtype Productions’s The American Democracy Series, curated by tommy Kreigsmann, at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, one of the world’s largest arts festivals, in Sibiu, Romania in June 2017.
Gaspard&Dancers

Gaspard&Dancers

Durham, NC

$20,000

to support three performances and accompanying master classes by Gaspard&Dancers as part of the 18th International Festival of Contemporary Dance “Isadora” Festival in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in May 2018.
Headlands Center for the Arts

Headlands Center for the Arts

Sausalito, CA

$15,000

to support two-month residencies for Czech artists Jakub Nepras and Milan Vagac at Headlands Center for the Arts in summer 2017.
Independent Curators International

Independent Curators International

New York, NY

$12,000

to support the participation of Beatriz Colomina, Adrian Deva, Molly Kleiman, Renaud Proch, and Christian Rattemeyer in Stacion Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina’s Summer School as a School program in Kosovo in June and July 2017.
Jacob Burns Film Center

Jacob Burns Film Center

Pleasantville, NY

$50,000

to support the participation of eight Lithuanian and Romanian filmmakers, actors, producers, and critics in Romanian Film Initiative’s 12th edition of MAKING WAVES: New Romanian Cinema in November and December 2017.
Lark Play Development Center

Lark Play Development Center

New York, NY

$25,000

to support the participation of playwrights, theater professionals, and Lark staff in bilateral exchanges between Hungary, Romania, Russia, and the United States in fall 2017.
Lincoln Center Theater

Lincoln Center Theater

New York, NY

$10,000

to support Polish and Russian participation in the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in June and July 2017.
Movement Research

Movement Research

New York, NY

$20,000

to support MRX/Hungary, a bilateral exchange program between MR and Budapest-based Workshop Foundation, in 2017.
New England Foundation for the Arts

New England Foundation for the Arts

Boston, MA

$10,000

to support travel for NEFA executive director Cathy Edwards and Lisa Booth Management vice president Deirdre Valente to Ukraine as part of season four of NEFA’s Center Stage program in May 2017.
Residency Unlimited

Residency Unlimited

Brooklyn, NY

$107,000

to bring award recipients from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia to the United States in 2017 and 2018 as part of the Young Visual Artists Awards program.
Single Carrot Theatre

Single Carrot Theatre

Baltimore, MD

$5,000

to send director Martin Boross, sound designer Mark Bartha, and performer Julia Jakubowska from Budapest, Hungary to Baltimore for final rehearsals and the opening of Promenade: Baltimore.
The Drama League

The Drama League

New York, NY

$20,000

to support The Drama League’s 2017/2018 bilateral US/Bulgaria Stage Directors Exchange in partnership with Art Office of Bulgaria.
The Wilma Theater

The Wilma Theater

Philadelphia, PA

$20,000

to bring director and choreographer Csaba Horvath to Philadelphia for eight weeks for workshops, rehearsals, and premiere of Blood Wedding in spring 2017.
The Wooster Group

The Wooster Group

New York, NY

$14,000

to bring Polish artist and theater director Tadeusz Kantor’s daughter, Dorota Krakowska, to New York for the final rehearsals and the opening of the Wooster Group’s A Pink Chair (In Place of A Fake Antique) at Bard College’s SummerScape Festival in July 2017.
Yale School of Drama

Yale School of Drama

New Haven, CT

$10,000

to support Tom Sellar’s travel to Croatia, Lithuania, and Poland to seek out seminal theater artists and writers, and to support their travel to Yale University in 2017 and 2018.
Zaccho SF

Zaccho SF

San Francisco, CA

$7,000

to bring Art tour Company from Moscow, Russia to Urban Jazz Dance’s annual Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival in San Francisco, California for performances, public talks, and dance workshops in August 2017.
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TMU ONLINE APPLICATION

For detailed information on our application process and frequently asked questions, please visit our Applicants page.

TMU reviews applications two times a year. To make the experience more user friendly, the application process is broken down into two parts:

  1. Initial Inquiry stage
  2. Full Application.

The deadlines are as follows:

  • Initial inquiry: May 1
  • Full Application: August 1
  • Notification: mid-November

This round is for projects happening January 1 or later.

  • Initial Inquiry: November 1
  • Full Application: February 1
  • Notification: mid-May

This round is for projects happening July 1 or later.

Please note that Initial Inquiries and Full Applications are due at 5:00pm, EST. Should the due dates of either the Inquiry or Full Application fall on a Saturday or Sunday, they are due on Monday, the next business day. Supporting materials for the Full Application should be received no more than two weeks following the respective deadline. When submitting a letter of recommendation, please clearly indicate the organization that is applying. We do not guarantee a notification of receipt of any supporting materials or letters. Grant tracking and/or application ID numbers are for grantee reference only and cannot be used for our purposes.

Please contact us if any questions arise during this process.

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Likhachev Foundation Cultural Fellowships

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BY THE LIKHACHEV FOUNDATION: The Likhachev Foundation (St. Petersburg, Russia) and the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (Moscow, Russia), with support of the Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg, announce a competition for two-week cultural fellowships in Russia (St. Petersburg) from 15 to 28 May 2017 for foreign professionals in the field of arts and culture who work on projects related to Russian culture and history and aimed at a broad foreign audience. Airfare

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Central Europe Looks Beyond Coal

Central Europe Looks Beyond Coal
Central Europe Looks Beyond Coal Kristina Sabova   Alternative energy production and new conservation tools are raising hope in Central Europe. Our region includes communities near the former “Black Triangle,” the border region shared by Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, that has long suffered from the polluting emissions of industry, coal-fired power plants, and open pit mines. The European Union is working on its future climate and energy scenarios, to bring clean and affordable

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CONTACT US

Contact Information
Email:

tmu (at) tmuny.org

Mailing:

Trust for Mutual Understanding
1 Rockefeller Plaza
Room 2500
New York, New York 10020

Telephone:

212 649 5776

Fax:

212 649 5777

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