It’s Harder Than Ever for Artists to Get Visas to the United States. But an Army of Volunteer Lawyers Wants to Help

Artists coming to the US from outside the country often need to
go through an onerous visa process with little direction or
guidance. But the New York-based nonprofit Center for Art
Law is stepping in to help those in need.

Later this month, the organization will hold the first of two sessions aimed at providing
information and resources to foreign-born artists who need to
obtain or renew visas.

The Visual Artists’ Immigration Clinic, as it is being called,
is co-organized by Angela Dimery, a fellow at the Center. In
an email to Artnet News, she said the program was launched after
the organization noticed an uptick in requests for assistance
regarding this particular issue.

“Some of our interns have demonstrated interest in serving
artists in a more practical manner,” Dimery said, noting that
the Center, which focuses on research, works with immigration
attorneys and does not offer legal advice.

The goal of the clinic is to introduce artists to attorneys and
to provide information about the broad process of visa application.
The hope is that individuals can link up with experts who may then
usher them through the process, which can take six to 12
months.

Immigration law can be a particularly thorny subject, and many
artists fall into the category of the O-1 visa (known as the
“genius” visa), for which applicants must demonstrate some sort of
“extraordinary ability” to qualify.

“The beauty of the O-1 visa is that it’s not country specific,”
said Teresa Woods Peña, a volunteer attorney for the
Visual Artists’ Immigration Clinic.

The internationally-renown Center for Art
Law located in Brooklyn and the Clinic is being hosted by
the DUMBO-based New York Foundation for the Arts—which has a
dedicated program to help foreign-born artists find business
resources in New York—it is open to artists throughout New York
City.

In the past six months, there have been multiple instances in which visual artists have
struggled to obtain visas to visit the US.

In November 2019, a group of artists whose work was on view at
MoMA PS1 were prevented from entering the
country due to visa restrictions.

That same month, the artist Zehra Doğan, who was jailed in
Turkey for allegedly having ties to an anti-government group,
was denied a visa to visit New York for the
opening of a show at the Drawing Center.”

The Visual Artists’ Immigration
Clinic will be held at the New York Foundation for the Arts at
20 Jay Street, Suite 740; Thursday, January 30, 2020, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.
and Tuesday, March 24, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.; $10
participation fee.

The post It’s Harder Than Ever for Artists to Get Visas to
the United States. But an Army of Volunteer Lawyers Wants to
Help appeared first on artnet News.