Grants Awarded
Since 2005, DDFIA’s Building Bridges Program has awarded
40 grants totaling approximately $10.1 million (as of December 31, 2011). Between 2005 and 2009, the program made grants in three areas of focus: media and the arts, cross cultural education and exchanges, and knowledge building. The Building Bridges Program has since narrowed its focus and will focus its grantmaking on the use of media and the arts to improve Americans’ understanding of Muslim societies.
Media and the Arts
Alliance of Artists Communities
$100,000 over 2.5 years (www.artistcommunities.org)
Providence, RI, 2010 - To support residencies in the U.S. for emerging Arab writers.
ArteEast Inc
$15,000 over 12 months (www.arteeast.org)
Brooklyn, NY, 2011 - To support expansion of ArteNews, a resource guide for artists, to reach a wider audience and provide a more comprehensive array of opportunities for artists.
Arts Midwest
$74,175 over 2 months (www.artsmidwest.org)
Minneapolis, MN, 2010 – To collaborate with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations to develop a comprehensive national system to strengthen the distribution, presentation and appreciation of contemporary art and artists from Muslim societies.
Arts Midwest
$1,000,000 over 3 years (www.artsmidwest.org)
Minneapolis, MN, 2010 – To support the first three years of Caravanserai, a proposed 10-year initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations that will support the touring of artists and films from Muslim societies to arts presenters across the country.
Asia Society
$200,000 over 2 years (www.asiasociety.org)
New York, NY, 2011 - To support expansion of the Creative Muslim Voices in Asia program, which will present the cultural diversity of Muslim Asia through performances, exhibitions, panel discussions, on-line programs and other new media efforts.
Asia Society
$750,000 over 3 years (www.asiasociety.org)
New York, NY, 2007 – To develop and execute the Creative Voices of Islam in Asia program, which highlights the cultural diversity of Muslims in Asia through performances, exhibitions, panel discussions, online programs and other new media efforts. The program aims to inform American audiences and create resource materials that can be used in classrooms.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc.
$150,000 over 13 months (www.bam.org)
Brooklyn, NY, 2011 - To support the pilot year of a new series highlighting music from Muslim societies.
Brooklyn Academy of Music
$451,306 over 3 years (www.bam.org)
Brooklyn, NY, 2007 – To support the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Illuminating Islam festival, a multi-disciplinary multi-venue ten-day festival of Muslim arts and cultures from June 5-14, 2009. The festival is being developed in partnership with the Asia Society and New York University’s Center for Dialogues.
California Science Center Foundation
$50,000 over 6 months (www.californiasciencecenter.org)
Los Angeles, CA, 2011 - To support public engagement activities of the 1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization exhibit at the California Science Center.
Independent Television Service Inc
$500,000 over 3 years (www.itvs.org)
San Francisco, CA, 2011 - To support the Diverse Muslim Voices Initiative, which will identify and distribute films from or about Muslim societies in order to build awareness and improve understanding in the US of Muslim societies.
Inner-City Muslim Action Network
$100,000 over 1 year (www.imancentral.org)
Chicago, IL, 2010 - To support further development of IMAN’s Arts and Culture Program through evaluation, strategic planning and continued arts programming.
Inner-City Muslim Action Network
$275,165 over 3 years (www.imancentral.org)
Chicago, IL, 2007 – To help expand IMAN’s Arts and Culture program, which aims to support the development of new work by Muslims based in urban areas across the United States; increase the exposure of such work to a broader audience; and engage inner-city Muslim youth in the arts.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
$450,000 over 3 years (www.kennedy-center.org)
Washington, DC, 2007 – To develop and execute the Festival of the Arab World scheduled for February-March 2009. The festival aims to educate the American public about Arab culture through the festival's programming and subsequent educational outreach, some of which will highlight the importance and longstanding influence of Islamic art on the contemporary world.
Link Media Inc
$350,000 over 23 months (www.linktv.org)
San Francisco, CA, 2011 - To support the expansion of Understanding Islam programming, including research on the availability of media resources on Muslim societies via the internet.
Link Media, Inc.
$750,000 over 3 years (www.linktv.org)
San Francisco, CA, 2008 – To support the development and distribution of programming that highlights the arts and culture of Muslim societies through the Understanding Islam program, which aims to educate American and international audiences about the many disparate Muslim societies around the world through the broadcast of documentaries, feature films, television series and taped programs on the Link TV satellite television network and website.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
$204,347 over 2 years (www.metmuseum.org)
New York, NY, 2010 – To support educational and outreach programs in conjunction with the re-opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Galleries for the Arts of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia in the fall of 2011.
National Geographic Society
$50,000 over 13 months (www.nationalgeographic.com)
Washington, DC, 2011 - To support NG Live! programming and family festival for the 1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization exhibit.
National Public Radio
$50,000 over 1 year (www.npr.org)
Washington, DC, 2011 - To support general news programming; in particular, to support NPR's coverage of Muslim societies, including both domestic and international coverage.
National Public Radio, Inc.
$50,000 over 1 year (www.npr.org)
Washington, DC, 2010 – To support NPR’s coverage of Muslim societies and cultures.
New England Foundation for the Arts
$100,000 over 13 months (www.nefa.org)
Boston, MA, 2011 - To support the participation of Indonesian and Pakistani artists in NEFA’s Center Stage, an international cultural engagement program.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc
$50,000 over 15 months (www.rpa.org)
New York, NY, 2011 - To support the Finding Common Ground communications research initiative led by Washington DC-based Hattaway Communications.
Sundance Institute
$600,000 over 2 years (www.sundance.org)
Beverly Hills, CA, 2011 - To support continuation of the Islamic Film Initiative, increasing the capacity of filmmakers from Muslim societies to cultivate and present well-developed films representing unique viewpoints for a broad audience.
Sundance Institute
$600,000 over 2 years (www.sundance.org)
Park City, UT, 2008 – To renew support for the Islamic Film Initiative, which supports the training and development of independent filmmakers from Muslim societies and raises the visibility of their work with U.S. audiences. The Sundance Institute will expand upon the Initiative’s work to date, specifically by increasing participation of filmmakers from the Muslim world in Sundance Film Labs, distributing work of artists from the Muslim world to a wider audience, and exploring new partnerships in the region. This grant will also establish the Islamic Film Artists Fund to provide financial support to independent filmmakers representing the Muslim world.
Sundance Institute
$600,000 over 3 years (www.sundance.org)
Salt Lake City, UT, 2005 – To establish the Sundance Islamic Film Initiative, which supports the training and participation of filmmakers from Muslim societies in the Sundance Film Lab; creates specialized programs at the Sundance Film Festival for filmmakers from the Muslim world; and maintains strategic collaborations between the Sundance Institute and two regional hubs in the Middle East (the Israel Film Fund in Jerusalem, and the Royal Film Commission in Amman, Jordan).
Unity Productions Foundation
$100,000 over 2 years (www.upf.tv)
Silver Spring, MD, 2007 – To further develop the 20,000 Dialogues initiative, which screens documentary films about Muslim cultures produced by the Unity Productions Foundation in classrooms nationwide. Screenings are followed by facilitated dialogues that seek to increase understanding and build bridges of mutual understanding and respect.
Cross-Cultural Education and Exchanges
America Abroad Media
$450,000 over 3 years (www.americaabroadmedia.org)
Washington, DC, 2008 – To support the development of multi-media educational materials about Muslim societies aimed at college and university students for integration into course curriculum, as well as distribution on the internet.
Americans for Informed Democracy
$150,000 over 2 years (www.aidemocracy.org)
Baltimore, MD, 2007 – To support the Hope not Hate Program, which organizes campus-based dialogues, town hall discussions and videoconferences between non-Muslim students and Muslim students based in the U.S. and in predominantly Muslim countries to improve U.S.-Muslim relations, particularly by introducing a cultural component into the series.
iEARN-USA
$500,000 over 3 years (www.us.iearn.org)
New York, NY, 2008 – To expand the BRIDGE Program, which connects K-12 students in the U.S. with students from the Muslim world through shared curriculum available on the internet. This grant will also support instruction for teachers on integrating technology into teaching methodology and introducing collaborative online project-based learning into educational curricula.
Meedan
$400,000 over 2 years (meedan.net)
San Francisco, CA, 2007 – To support the development of Meedan’s Dialogue Platform, which helps English speakers, specifically in North America, engage in simultaneous online dialogue with Arabic speakers around the world. In partnership with IBM and CISCO, Meedan is developing the tools required to facilitate such online dialogue. The DDFIA grant will enable Meedan to build its diverse network of NGOs, educational and community institutions in North America and the Arab world interested in using this technology for improving dialogue and understanding.
Soliya
$393,600 over 3 years (www.soliya.net)
Brooklyn, NY, 2006 – To support Soliya’s Connect Program, a university-based project that enables students in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East to engage in dialogue and project collaboration using Web-based videoconferencing and the internet. The grant also supports Soliya’s Continued Engagement Activities for students who have completed the Connect Program.
Knowledge Building
Asia Society
$89,070 over 1 year (www.asiasociety.org)
New York, NY, 2008 – To support the creation of a white paper on the role of arts and culture in building bridges between the U.S. and the Muslim populations of Asia.
Brookings Institution
$150,060 over 1 year (www.brookings.org)
Washington, DC, 2008 – To renew support for the expansion of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy’s US-Islamic World Arts and Culture Leaders Initiative by increasing governance and administrative support for the initiative, and convening the Arts and Culture Leaders Seminar at the 2009 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. The grant will also support a website showcasing activities of the initiative and its participants.
Brookings Institution
$212,321 over 1 year (www.brookings.edu)
Washington, DC, 2006 – To establish the U.S.-Islamic World Arts and Culture Leaders Initiative, which explores the possibilities for enhancing cooperation and understanding between the U.S. and the Muslim societies through arts and cultures, and identifies programming ideas to advance and improve cooperation. Activities include facilitating the Arts and Leaders Seminar at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar; Arts and Culture Leaders Summits in the United States; and the production of an analytic research paper based on the findings of these meetings for public dissemination.