Greetings!

Many of IVCLA's delegations whose exchange program focus on arts education or at-risk youth visit Inner-City Arts, an oasis in the heart of skid-row. They received IVCLA's 2009 Outstanding Resource Award. On July 10th, the children at Inner-City Arts had the opportunity to create art with the Royal Couple. While visiting the ceramic studio, Prince William and his bride left their hand-prints and signatures in slabs of clay. These tiles will be glazed by students, fired in the kilns and intstalled in one of the campus walls.

International Filmmakers visit Belmont High School

By Jessica Castillo, Intern

How does a classroom full of high school students in Downtown Los Angeles relate to a diverse selection of delegates from the Middle East, Morocco and Bangladesh? Through film of course! Last month an IVCLA delegation of filmmakers from Afghanistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bangladesh and India met with two Belmont High School classes to discuss their work with students and learn about the school's Multimedia Academy. Several of the visitors met with students taking a film course with Mr. Manzur - a passionate instructor who explains that students have access to the industry's best equipment, funded entirely through grants that aim to give youth at the lowest socio-economic level an opportunity to gain skills in the film industry. Standing in front of a green screen, one of the many props at the class' disposal, the group of delegates spoke to attentive and aspiring filmmakers about their backgrounds, love of film and challenges they faced in completing some of their projects.

Sharing samples of their work, which included documentaries, music videos and youth film projects, spurred an abundance of questions from the students: "how long did it take to finish your film?", "as a woman, is it difficult to be a filmmaker in your country?", "what was the goal of your project", etc. Mohammad Asrar Ghani of Afghanistan and Nahla Hamad A Mohd Bin Fahad Almheiri of the United Arab Emirates express how lucky the students are to have access to film classes in high school, explaining that in their respective countries such classes are not available to youth, and students are often not afforded a choice in their career paths. Mr. Manzur, in return, explained to the delegation that many of us often have very limited views of people from other parts of the world, and that their unique visit offered students a chance to understand more about places and cultures they may not have known much about previously.

Before leaving the class for several more rounds of insightful meetings, Ms. Almheiri imparted these words of wisdom to the inquisitive teenagers: "Love what you do, and be different. Try to learn every bit in your classes and hopefully one day, you will be stars!"

Michael McDowell, LA INC.'s Senior Director for Cultural Tourism, has been elected to the Steering Committee of the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance, the nation's leading group of tourism marketing professionals who share the vision and challenge of increasing tourism through the promotion of authentic and unique cultural assets and experiences in the U.S., to visitors worldwide. Other U.S. cities currently represented on the Committee include Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.