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CIMA:
AN OVERVIEW
The Center For Iranian Modern Arts (CIMA), is a non-profit
organization that promotes and heightens public awareness
about modern arts, particularly within the context of contemporary
Iranian-American society and culture. CIMA was founded by
two artist couples: Nahid Hagigat , Nickzad Nodjoumi,
and Hengameh Fouladvand , Massoud Mansouri. These
four original founders were later joined with many other
artists , scholors, art critics, and other professionals
to form CIMA. They were searching for a way to familiarize
artists with each others works, and help end the relative
state of isolation in which Iranian-American artists have
found themselves working. They also wanted to create a forum
not only for discussion between artists, but also create
an oppurtunity for artists to engage with a broader public.
The four founders have been friends for many years and have
exhibited their work at many other exhibits. As working
Iranian- American Artists themselves, they are in a position
to understand the need for a forum for exposure, discussion,
and collaboration.
These artists and scholars who organized CIMA understood
that the majority of the public was not being given the
opprtunity to be in touch and aware of the works of the
art now being created by a vibrant and exceptional group
of modern artists; they felt that Iranian-Americans were
now more and more aware of the latest Spielberg or Schwarzenegger
film and less and less aware of the creative work amongst
fellow Iranians. They see their mission as creating an artistic
community, to expose artists to new audiences, to make a
place where the Iranian- American artistic community can
feel at home,and to create a space of interaction and exchange
of ideas. In particular, they aim to create an educational
forum to be used by the youth of the Iranian-American community,
in a place that stresses the cultural and the imaginative,
rather than the explicitly dogmatic or political.
As a way of realizing these goals, after many discussions,
CIMA was finally established in September of 1998; a not-for-profit
organization purely for the arts. Next, pragmatic steps
to make it happen were taken and the first CIMA exhibit
"Passions Evoked" (Reviewed here) was organized
and received wholeheartedly by a suppportive community of
artists and patrons, friends and associates. Along with
the visual art exhibits, CIMA plans on organizing performances
and lectures about a variety of subjects from the visual
arts to the written word, and workshops on painting, sculpture,
and the graphic arts for old and young alike. 'Passions
Evoked", Summer Group Show, "Panj": works
of five female Iranian artists, To meet the Authors "A
World Between" a collaboration with Asia Society ,
and "Persian Fiction and Iranian Culture" in collaboration
with Columbia University,a book exhibition and panel discussion
featuring Iranian shcolors including: Mahmoud Dolatabadi,
Shahryar Mandanipour, Javad Mojabi, Shala Lahiji, Azar Nafisy,
and Mohammad Ali Sepanlu was arranged and hosted by Professor
Hamid Dabashi , Department of Middle East and Asian Languages
and Ciltures of Columbia University and member of CIMA's
dvisorory Panel.
By sponsoring such important cultural events
CIMA demonstrates the remarkable accomplishments, originality
and artistic contributions of Iranian artists to American
audiences. To date CIMA has featured over thirty artists
in total, and has created new audiences for many different
venues.
--Tanaz Eshaghian
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