The Contest of the Fruits

The Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities’ The Contest of the Fruits will explore physical and cultural borders, heritage, and identity through an artist residency that will produce an animated film, exhibition, public programs, and a publication. The Contest of the Fruits is a nineteenth-century Muslim text, written in Uyghur, that captures the possibilities of boundary crossings to cultivate understanding, tolerance, and identity in a pluralistic world. With this inspiration, the Hurford Center will host a four-month residency with the internationally exhibited, Berlin-based artist collective Slavs and Tatars, whose members hail from Poland, Iran, and the US. During their residency, the artists will engage with project partners—Philadelphia’s Twelve Gates Arts gallery and the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Philadelphia chapter—where they will present lecture-performances and community events that prompt dialogue among audiences of diverse cultures. Exhibitions and film screenings will be presented at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and at Twelve Gates Arts.

Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.