• 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
    Slide
    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

2019 Cultural Grants

$229,317

Total Grants
in 2019

$172,750

Cultural Grants
in 2019

14

Cultural Grants
in 2019

2019 Cultural Grants

Artists Upstairs

Artists Upstairs

Baltimore, MD

$15,000

to support travel associated with the research and development of the quarterly Hungarian Letter of News by “Szinhaz” Hungarian theater magazine co-editors in 2019.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$30,000

to support a series of inter-regional exchanges in 2019 between visual and performing artists and environmentalists in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European countries, organized by Summa Artium in Budapest, Hungary.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$5,250

to support a series of grantwriting workshops in Dubrovnik, Osijek, Split, and Zagreb, Croatia conducted by Fritzie Brown in partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Art in Zagreb in October 2019.
Emerson College

Emerson College

Boston, MA

$8,000

to support HowlRound Director Jamie Gahlon and HowlRound Cultural Strategist Vijay Mathew to travel to Bucharest and Cluj, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic in April and May 2019.
Fort Ross Conservancy

Fort Ross Conservancy

Jenner, CA

$2,500

to support performances by Saina Ekatherina Savvinova of the Sakha Republic at Fort Ross Conservancy’s “Alaska Native Day” in June 2019.
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Gina Gibney Dance

Gina Gibney Dance

New York, NY

$10,000

to support a one-week planning residency in April 2019 for two Gibney Dance staff members to collaborate with Derida Dance Center in Sofia, Bulgaria and Dock 11 in Berlin, Germany on the development of an international platform designed to commission new work and provide residency opportunities for dance and performance artists.
Independent Curators International

Independent Curators International

New York, NY

$20,000

to bring US-based arts professionals to Prishtina, Kosovo to serve as faculty for courses that will train young arts professionals as part of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina’s Summer School as School in August 2019.
Jam Pak Blues 'N' Grass Band

Jam Pak Blues 'N' Grass Band

Chandler, AZ

$14,000

to send Cisco and the Racecars, an award-winning, Arizona-based bluegrass band, to Ukraine for two weeks in June 2019 to give performances and conduct workshops.
Peabody Opera

Peabody Opera

Baltimore, MD

$22,000

to support the rehearsal process and premiere of the English language production of Hungarian director Béla Pintér's opera A Bajnok (The Champion) at Peabody Opera in Baltimore in February 2020.
Residency Unlimited

Residency Unlimited

Brooklyn, NY

$7,000

to support travel related to activities surrounding the 20th anniversary celebration of P74 Gallery in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The Imaginists

The Imaginists

Santa Rosa, CA

$10,000

to bring Hungarian artistic team Arpad Schilling (director), Ildiko Sagodi (production manager and dramaturg), and Anna Maria Lang (co-writer) to Santa Rosa, CA for a three-week generative work-session to begin the development of the original piece The Gun in July and August 2019.
The Relationship

The Relationship

New York, NY

$14,000

to support performances of Walid Raad’s performance/installation Les Louvres and/or Kicking the Dead at the Mladi Levi festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia in August 2019 and the Homo Novus festival in Riga, Latvia in September 2019.
Trisha Brown Company

Trisha Brown Company

New York, NY

$10,000

to support a month-long creative residency to set Brown’s 2004 dance work O zlozony/O composite on the Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow, Russia in April 2019.
WaxFactory

WaxFactory

New York, NY

$5,000

to support SITI Company ensemble member and master educator Barney O’Hanlon’s 10-day residency in Rijeka, Croatia as part of the inaugural edition of Croatian Cultural Alliance’s Contemporary Performance Practices program in July 2019.
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TMU ONLINE APPLICATION

TO BEGIN AN INITIAL INQUIRY, CLICK HERE.

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.

THE BLOG

Eriola Pira in Discussion With Ivet Ćurlin from What, How & For Whom/WHW

Eriola Pira in Discussion With Ivet Ćurlin from What, How & For Whom/WHW
Members of What, How & for Whom/WHW From the January 2019 edition of Grantee Voices Eriola Pira: We’re sitting here outside Galeria Nova in Zagreb, which What, How & For Whom has been running for some 15 years, and I wanted to start our conversation this afternoon, Ivet, with the history of WHW: how you, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić, Sabina Sabolović, and designer and publicist Dejan Kršić came to work together as a curatorial collective.

By TMU | | In blog, Culture | Read more

Jonathan Slaght in Conversation with David Gordon

Russian Far East. Photo by Jon Slaght. From the April 2018 edition of Grantee Voices David Gordon: Jon, thank you for taking the time to share your great knowledge and experience with the TMU community. For starters, why don’t you introduce yourself? Tell us who you are. Jonthan Slaght: Sure! My name is Jonathan Slaght. I’m a US-based wildlife biologist. I work for a group called the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which is based in

By TMU | | In blog, Environment | Read more

András Török in Conversation with Barnabás Bencsik

From an interview conducted November 29, 2017 at Glassyard Gallery, Budapest András Török: I am sitting in the brand new Glassyard Gallery in Budapest with Barnabás Bencsik, who is the curator and co-owner of the gallery, launched at the end of September 2017. Barnabás, you are a well-known curator—you have had a long career. I’m interested in the international aspects of your career. Actually, have there been aspects other than international ones? Glassyard Gallery Barnabás

By TMU | | In Uncategorized | Read more

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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