Sharq Art

"Sharq Art" chronicles a fifteen-year experimental, non-profit gallery based on the belief it is important to carry ideals into action. For its founder, Afghan-American Nahid Massoud, and her husband, Robert A. Rosenstone, those ideals included using the gallery to combat the stereotypes about the East rampant in the years following 9/11, as well as providing a safe place where immigrants and natives could come to know each other. The book details the exhibitions, readings, films, and musical events with essays by the directors and images from the works of twenty-five artists with origins in 17 different countries. My aim was to create a safe space where we could discuss with American friends our mutual issues as immigrants and naturalized citizens. I wanted a place free of the judgments on Muslims and other people from the world of Sharq (the East), which were stereotypical and pervasive. I wanted a space where our cultures would communicate through artistic vision, with less focus on politics and religion. I wanted to create a gallery where we'd all feel at home.
--Nahid Massoud