The Bangladeshi Amer­i­can Artist Forum (BAAF) is a New York City-based col­lec­tive ded­i­cat­ed to empow­er­ing visu­al artists of Bangladeshi ori­gin. Found­ed in 2015, BAAF fos­ters cul­tur­al exchange, ampli­fies dias­poric voic­es, and bridges Bangladeshi her­itage with con­tem­po­rary glob­al art prac­tices. The orga­ni­za­tion sup­ports artists through exhi­bi­tions, work­shops, men­tor­ship pro­grams, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects while pro­mot­ing cross-cul­tur­al dia­logue with­in NYC’s diverse cre­ative landscape.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram

Each year from May – Octo­ber, more than two dozen arts and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions use space inside the his­toric hous­es on Gov­er­nors Island through Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram, offer­ing free exhi­bi­tions and pub­lic pro­grams and host­ing artist res­i­den­cies. Over the next decade, New York City and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island plan to expand this sea­son­al pro­gram into year-round per­ma­nent homes for cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions in these spaces.

BAAF’s sea­son­al res­i­den­cy, Between Riv­er and Har­bor: Sto­ries That Car­ry Us, curat­ed by Kaiser Kamal, will trans­form one of the his­toric hous­es into a liv­ing archive of dias­poric mem­o­ry, abstrac­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tion. Through exhi­bi­tions, camps, and pub­lic pro­grams, they will explore how sto­ries — per­son­al, ances­tral, and imag­ined — move through gen­er­a­tions like water: shap­ing iden­ti­ty, bridg­ing cul­tures, and fos­ter­ing unity.