Arghavan Khosravi

Visual Artist and Illustrator

Arghavan Khosravi’s (b. 1984, Shahr-e Kord, Iran) studio practice mobilizes visual art as a vehicle for cultural transformation. Her 3D paintings take a conscious look at how the value system transmitted through iconography in ancient Persian miniatures continues to shape Iranian gender politics today. Khosravi earned an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design after completing the studio art program at Brandeis University, previously earning a BFA in Graphic Design from Tehran Azad University and an MFA in Illustration from the University of Tehran. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, at venues such as The Currier Museum of Art Manchester, NH; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China; Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI; and Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA; among others. Khosravi’s residencies include The Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; the Studios at MassMoCA, North Adams, MA; Monson Arts, Monson, ME; and Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY. She is a 2019 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters & Sculptors Grant and a 2017-8 recipient of the Walter Feldman Fellowship. The artist’s work belongs to the collections of Those Rose Art Museum, The PAFA Museum, The Newport Art Museum and The Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

Dr. Shiva Balaghi

Scholar, Cultural Historian & Art Curator

Dr. Shiva Balaghi is a cultural historian specializing in the visual culture of the Middle East and its diasporas. She is Academic Coordinator of the Area Global Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She previously served as Senior Advisor to the President of the American University in Cairo for Arts and Cultural Programs and taught History and History of Art at NYU and Brown University for nearly two decades. Her books include Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution (co-edited), Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East (co-edited), and Saddam Hussein: A Biography. Her writing has also appeared in Artforum, Hyperallergic, MERIP, and Iranian Studies. Balaghi has curated over a dozen art exhibitions in museums and galleries in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Neda Nobari

Founder & Catalyst Officer – MOZAIK Philanthropy

Neda Nobari is an Iranian-American justice advocate who established the Neda Nobari Foundation (NNF) in 2007 with a philanthropic mission of promoting social and environmental justice through arts and education. For over a decade, Nobari has advanced universal human rights by seeding hundreds of grassroots organizations in California, nationally and internationally. With a personal commitment to continued education and innovation, in 2020 Nobari rebranded her private foundation away from her personal legacy to MOZAIK Philanthropy, with a mission to democratize philanthropy based on a participatory community grantmaking model through a focus on the Arts. To date MOZAIK has supported over 500 artists and art writers around the globe through the COVID-19 pandemic by providing artist support grants, exhibition exposure and peer-review publication, showcasing that the power of contemporary art is a critical medium for social change.