RUSSIAN-AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
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Mission Statement
The Russian-American Cultural Center was founded in 1998 with the aim of providing permanent cultural representation to over 600,000 under-represented and under-funded communities of multinational Russian-speaking residents from the former Soviet Union in the New York area. In addition to supporting cultural awareness and understanding of emerging Russian-American artists, history and culture, RACC seeks to foster cultural exchange and cultural diversity among all cultural communities in New York City through the exchange of experiences and shared values. RACC provides a cultural environment in which Russian-speaking immigrants from New York can be integrated into the American mainstream and represented to spread American art and culture, and where the American public can learn about Russian culture, history, and art. By creating a large number of high quality events in interdisciplinary fields such as visual arts, literature, publications, film screenings, festivals and discussions, RACC serves a wide audience, including Russian and non-Russian speakers.
About This Cause
RACC's ongoing programs include: exhibition program "Artist Career Development" (1999-), Literary Series (2000-), film screenings & discussion series, International Art Film Festival and Diaspora Film Festival (2001-). All events organized by RACC in spaces donated by Harriman Institute of Columbia University and Public Libraries, and rented: Poets House, Hunter College (due to RACC's cooperation with the Department of Classical and Oriental Studies in a discounted price). We are delighted that the Diaspora Film Festival has been recognized in the acknowledgment of the Russian American Cultural Center as one of the five most important cultural centers supporting communities across America (Wiki.ezvid.com). 2019 was a successful year for our literary program, with eleven events organized instead of the usual eight. The Yorkville Public Library has become the venue for most of our literary readings and the first library in the city to see Russian readers and audiences grow by 20%. In 2018, Columbia University hosted the RACC exhibition and symposium "Russian Artists in New York" (catalog published by RACC); an article by Regina Khidekel was included in the catalog of the Venice Biennale 2018; In February 2020, a conference and exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the avant-garde Vitebsk Art School and the UNOVIS (Affirmers of New Art) group was held at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Minsk (Belarus). Regina Khidekel is a contributor and editor of the bilingual catalog, and a participant in conferences and lectures. According to demographics, 1.6 million Russian Americans live in the Three States area, of which 600,000 live in New York City and the largest Russian-American communities in New York are located in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, Queens and Hamilton Heights, Manhattan, with growing Russian-speaking populations in the Bronx and Harlem. There were several waves of immigration of Russian speakers to the United States - at the end of the 19th century, thousands of destitute and disadvantaged Jewish immigrants sought refuge in America from discrimination and brutal pogroms in the Russian Empire. This exodus from Russia continued during and after the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, marked by violence and ongoing anti-Semitic pogroms, especially in Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia, where Jews were locked up in settlement lines. In addition, thousands of Russians, including members of the nobility, fled Russia during the Civil War (1918-1921), and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons of Russian descent arrived in the United States after World War II. The next big wave came in the mid-1970s, when Jews were still plagued by anti-Semitism as second-class citizens thanks to the help of American organizations and the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the 1974 Trade Act began to receive permission to leave the Soviet Union. Over time, other minorities from the Caucasus, Central Asian republics with majority of Muslim population such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and various outlawed Christian sects, and political and cultural dissidents, artists and intellectuals followed this exodus. RACC community is mainly composed of these diverse groups of immigrants who came to the United States in search of freedom of conscience, religion, speech and expression, equality, democratic values. For members of these communities, a common spoken language and culture are the main unifying factors that define their identity as Russian speakers in the United States. This defines the mission of the Russian-American Cultural Center, uniting communities, preserve the cultural heritage, support and develop Russian-American art and culture in the United States. The RACC welcomes artists, writers and filmmakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and covers the widest range of cultural preferences, interests and cultural expressions that reflect the community served by the RACC. It consists of various groups of immigrants who left their former homeland due to human rights violations, lack of freedom of speech and thought, press and assembly, being artistic and political dissidents, and historically underrepresented by nationality, religion or affiliation such as LGBT people who are banned even today in their home countries, as well as people with disabilities who have historically been undeserved and even ignored as they were extremely limited in their movement and civic participation. RACC serves an aging population in need as well as people in need of mental health care as spectators as well as creators.