California Story Fund
California Afghan Artists Oral History Project
UC Regents,Sponsored Projects Office
Project Director: Brendan Furey
How Afghan artists are forging a new identity in California
Over the past 25 years, civil war in Afghanistan has decimated Afghan art and culture and forced many Afghans to flee the country. Today, many of the most significant Afghan artists of the 20th century reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, now home to the largest Afghan community outside Asia.
This project recorded the stories of six Afghan artists with particular emphasis on how conflict and war have affected the artistic process and the cultural identity of the community. Also explored were the ways in which expatriation and American culture have influenced Afghan art and identity in California.
The interviews are archived in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. The project culminated with a symposium in April 2005 on Afghan art and culture in California.
Farhad Azad, a noted expert on Afghan art, said, “While war has destroyed art collections in Afghanistan, suppressed the practice of art and resulted in the dispersion of Afghans across the globe, the essence of Afghan culture lives in the stories of its people. Now the general public has access to these stories.”