• 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

2018 Cultural Grants

$194,823

Total Grants
in 2018

$192,323

Cultural Grants
in 2018

12

Cultural Grants
in 2018

2018 Cultural Grants

Abrons Arts Center

Abrons Arts Center

New York, NY

$14,000

to support the Hungary Live Festival, created by K2 Company from Budapest, Hungary, at Abrons Arts Center in June 2018.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$9,000

to bring CEC Program Director Susan Katz from St. Petersburg, Russia to New York to participate in strategic planning sessions, and to support travel for CEC Executive Director Simon Dove to Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Russia, and Ukraine to build connections with the CEC ArtsLink staff in St. Petersburg and activate networks of alumni and partner organizations in CEC partner countries in 2018.
CEC ArtsLink

CEC ArtsLink

New York, NY

$25,000

to support a series of inter-regional exchanges in 2018 between visual and performing artists and environmentalists in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European countries, organized by Summa Artium in Budapest, Hungary.
Collapsable Giraffe

Collapsable Giraffe

New York, NY

$7,500

to support the participation of actors Jelena Galovic and Uros Mladenovic, dramaturg Suncica Milosavlevjic, and creative producer Milan Vraçar in a week-long developmental residency of playwright Aaron Landsman’s new performance work Language Reversal, created in collaboration with the Serbian NGO Kulturanova, in March 2018.
Double Edge Theatre

Double Edge Theatre

Ashfield, MA

$15,000

to support Polish and Russian participation in an international coalition of producing and presenting partners around the creation and performance of Leonora and Alejandro: La Maga y el Maestro as part of Peak Performances at Montclair State University in March 2018.
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Headlands Center for the Arts

Headlands Center for the Arts

Sausalito, CA

$12,000

to support a two-month residency for visual artist Lucia Tallova from Bratislava, Slovakia in spring 2018.
Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Band

Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Band

Chandler, AZ

$10,000

to send six bluegrass musicians and Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Band Executive Director Anni Beach to Ukraine for a week-long tour of performances and workshops in July 2018.
Lark Theatre Company

Lark Theatre Company

New York, NY

$25,000

to support three months of research on cultural philanthropy and best practices in the audiovisual industry for Romanian cultural specialist Corina Suteu in New York City and Los Angeles in spring 2018.
Maryland Institute College of Art

Maryland Institute College of Art

Baltimore, MD

$18,823

to support a bilateral exchange between MICA’s Center for Social Design and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary in 2018.
Northeast Document Conservation Center

Northeast Document Conservation Center

Andover, MA

$30,000

to support a Central or Eastern European conservation professional’s participation in a 55-day, advanced training internship in photograph conservation at NEDCC in fall 2018.
Residency Unlimited

Residency Unlimited

Brooklyn, NY

$21,000

to support the Young Visual Artists Award (YVAA) program regional meeting in Croatia in June 2018.
WaxFactory

WaxFactory

New York, NY

$5,000

to support WaxFactory co-founder Ivan Talijancic’s travel to Rijeka, Croatia for two weeks in June 2018 to conduct pre-production activities in conjunction with a large-scale, site-specific performance slated for 2020 as part of RIJEKA 2020/European Capital of Culture.
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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

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

How a group of Mongolian herders took on a mining giant — and won

How a group of Mongolian herders took on a mining giant — and won
Original article published by Devex By Sophie Edwards Camel herders in Mongolia. Photo by: Alan Fieldus / CC BY-NC WASHINGTON — Tending camels in the Gobi desert — moving them to fresh grazing pastures in the spring and summer, and to shelter in the winter — has been a way of life for families in Mongolia for thousands of years. But cycles of freezing winters and dry summers — a natural phenomenon which the herders

By TMU | | In blog, Environment | Read more

Moving Away From Agricultural Burning in Ukraine

Moving Away From Agricultural Burning in Ukraine
by Dr. Gail Stevenson Meeting with the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service The International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) organized a study tour for six Ukrainian farmers and experts to the United States in October to explore alternatives to open burning with the support of TMU. The group visited university agricultural research stations and numerous farms in Pennsylvania through an excellent collaboration with the Pennsylvania State College of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance, after which the

By TMU | | In Environment | 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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