Flying Carpet Festival 2023 Call For Artists Is Now Open

The Flying Carpet 2023 Open Call for Artists is now open. The deadline for submitting the application form is January 31st, 2023. The fifth Flying Carpet Festival will return to the Turkish Syrian border between September 15th-25th, 2023, and be held in remote villages near the border and the cities of Mardin and Kiziltepe during a 10-day residency for 20-40 artists from around the world.

More info and how to apply: http://www.flyingcarpetfestival.org/apply

The Syrian civil war has created an immense educational crisis for the Middle East as a whole. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that less than 40 percent of Syrian refugee children are enrolled in formal education. Not only is the education of individual Syrian children under threat, but also the future of Syrian and host communities. The stability and prosperity of the region will depend on ensuring that school-age children receive the education they require to be resilient to the challenges they face and to be able to provide for themselves and their families.

While Syria's future depends upon its children, a lost generation has emerged. Given the number of Syrian refugee children currently not receiving formal education, the strained capacities of host countries, the political considerations, and the risks posed to children and society at large, there is an urgent need to alleviate this situation with innovative educational strategies to coordinate efforts, share knowledge, make evidence-based decisions, improve efficiency and/or effectiveness and solicit resources.

Flying Carpet Festival is the first mobile multi-disciplinary arts festival for vulnerable and refugee children living in difficult places worldwide. The Flying Carpet Children Festival is an intensive learning platform for artists and vulnerable children alike to create a harmonious experience through music, circus, dance, light, beauty, and truth. We organize festivals specializing in forward-thinking design, music, and art dedicated to educating children who need it most. The festival selects artists, musicians, and visionaries from all over the world with the common goal of creating the best possible educational experience for vulnerable children traumatized by war and conflict.

The Flying Carpet Festival was created in 2018 by Sahba Aminikia, a San Francisco-based Iranian American music composer, in collaboration with Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi (Art Anywhere Association), originally a social circus school and a cultural organization based in Mardin, Türkiye, near the Turkish Syrian border where 3.6 million refugees, half of whom are children are resettled. Other programs held by Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi include Sirkhane (circus and acrobatic workshops), Sirkhane Darkroom (analog photography workshops), and Müzikhane (music workshops).

The festival annually brings 20-40 artists, musicians, dancers, acrobats, and storytellers to the Turkish Syrian border as part of an artist residency. It engages them in creating a cohesive artistic story-telling experience decorated with music, dance, circus arts, and visual projection for children of Syrian, Turkish, and Kurdish origin. The festival forms collaborations between artists-in-residence, local artists, and child artists.

Since its conception, The Flying Carpet Festival has reached out to 18,000 children through 46 live performances and 260 workshops and has hosted 95 artists. It also has been mentioned in San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Associated Press, KALW, Medium, and I Care if You Listen. In previous years, Flying Carpet has been sponsored by the United States Embassy in Adana, BMZ (German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Istanbul.

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