The U.S. Embassy in Cairo is pleased to welcome Michael Kaiser, Chairman of the DeVos Institute for Arts and Cultural Management at the University of Maryland, to Egypt for the first of three visits over the next eight months. Mr. Kaiser, President Emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, will provide hands-on mentorship to Egyptian arts and cultural administrators to enhance their organizations and build their capacity. In 2009, Mr. Kaiser led “Arabesque,” the largest ever Arab cultural festival that drew participants from 22 Arab countries including Egypt.

Over the next eight months, Mr. Kaiser will conduct five training seminars focused on his arts and cultural management curriculum, called “The Cycle.” Egyptian organizations participating in these trainings will receive instruction on strategic planning, marketing, and ways to increase their audience, revenues, and supporters—all for the purpose of growing their ability to invest in, develop, support, and create even better art. At the conclusion of the seminar series, eight participants will travel with Mr. Kaiser to the United States in October 2023 to meet like-minded American arts and cultural administrators, exchange ideas, and establish connections for future collaboration. The U.S. Government’s objective through this initiative is to support and catalyze cultural innovation and cooperation in and between Egypt and the United States.

Commenting on the importance of the training program to U.S.-Egypt cultural collaboration, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. Ambassador Daniel Rubinstein stated, “I am confident our friends here in Egypt will benefit enormously from this program, and that the connections established from this program will lead to not only greater progress in the United States’ and Egypt’s arts and cultural communities, but in our respective nations’ economies as well.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy in Egypt.