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In 2024, Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy is supporting indigenous cultural groups in Panama. TRIP’s support aims to increase education of cultural diversity in a region made notable by being ‘a country between two continents’.  The multi-partner grant includes support to Biomuseo, a landmark cultural institution designed by Frank Gehry, for their new educational program, “The Forests of the Darien”, which addresses the Darien region of Panama.

The biodiverse country of Panama has been home to diverse cultures and communities for centuries, with a rich constellation of indigenous heritage as well as influences from colonial influences, the Spanish, Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, American and French involvement. Today, at least seven large indigenous communities continue to thrive across Panama, including the  Ngäbe, the Buglé, the Guna, the Emberá, the Wounaan, the Bri bri, and the Naso Tjërdi; about 425,000 inhabitants or 12% of the Panamanian population identify as indigenous. Panama is changing. Today’s inbound populations of Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Afghan, Chinese and other migrant refugees is impacting Panama in unprecedented ways, prompting both cultural and natural heritage organizations to initiate such studies and educational programs as those of Biomuseo.

In support of this work, TRIP has co-created initiatives with the Impact Fund of Tourism Cares the largest non-profit organization in the international travel industry; for which Robin Tauck, Founder of TRIP, serves on their Board of Directors.

Portobelo and Achiote Communities

Portobelo is a pristine and quiet harbor on the Caribbean Sea with a torrid past.  During the 1700’s, it was the hidden port for ships carrying gold and other products of colonial occupation across to Spain. Remnants of slave history remain.  Today, a vibrant Afro Caribbean community in the area uses the area to showcase arts and dance practices.  TRIP is supporting the first-ever grant to Fundacion Los Naturalistas for the opening Portobelo National Park; TRIP’s grant will support the hiring of park rangers and training.

In addition, TRIP is partnering with Tourism Cares and APTSO to support the El Tragon Trail and interpretation programs at Achiote, one of the top native bird and sloth sanctuaries in Panama. Near San Lorenzo National Park, Achiote is one of the best places in the world to observe local, protected wildlife in their natural habitats.

Biomuseo & the Darien Peninsula: A New Exhibition

The Darien Peninsula of Panama is one of the most significant jungles in the world. It is home to three cultural indigenous groups: the Guna, the Embera and the Wounaan.

Each group has their own territories, languages and traditions, many are fragile and endangered by industrial encroachment and mass migration.  Today, hundreds of thousands of migrants are crossing the treacherous Darien Gap; a humanitarian crisis.

TRIP’s support of Biomuseo and related initiatives pertaining to the Darien will enable one of Panama’s most-visited museums to showcase the country’s important cultures, significant biodiversity, critical marine protectorates, and unique topography in an effort to educate, galvanize and inspire the advancement of conservation projects, many of which concurrently address current global issues such as migration, deforestation and other issues.

The new “Forests of the Darien” exhibit is designed for mobility, reach and access. It will travel first to Metiti, a community deep within the Darien, enabling local communities – including seven schools serving over 200 children – to first engage with the material. The 12 exhibit panels and teaching programs are strategically designed to allow those without much access to cities or the permanent location of Biomuseo to benefit equally from its work.  Per Victor Cucalon Imbert, Executive Director of Biomuseo:

This international grant and the traveling project is exciting and needed, as many cultures co-exist, adapt in real time and face unprecedented environmental and social challenges.  We are grateful to TRIP & Tourism Cares for their sustainability focus on Panama.

—Victor Cucalon Imbert, Executive Director of Biomuseo

We are grateful for the support and partnership of Biomuseo, Tourism Cares, and the community partners across Panama enabling this project. Promoting cultural understanding and reaching new audiences with messages of conservation and adaptation are workstreams that are core to our mission and values. TRIP looks forward to bringing this case study to the Meaningful Travel Summit and including it in the Meaningful Map of Panama in 2024.

Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy believes intercultural dialogue, economic development and social health can be achieved through cross-cultural efforts and an emphasis on sustainable community development. From 2021-2022, TRIP will extend grants to 10 heritage communities in Colombia. In partnership with our longtime partners Tourism Cares and Collective Impulse of Bogotá and Medellín, our support ensures these destinations will join Tourism Care’s Meaningful Travel Map for Colombia, a resource which enables travelers to find experiences, products and services that make an impact in the local community. Adding these destinations to one’s itinerary generates positive outcomes for local citizens and proves what TRIP stands behind: that the decisions one makes when traveling can make a difference in the world.

What is this project aiming to achieve?

First and foremost, this project endeavors to realize social transformation and inclusivity. Second, we aim to help promote the success stories of Colombia’s regional social enterprises by leveraging digital platforms, media and the voices of changemakers at the helm of this progress so that they may serve as models for other countries seeking similar change. As the world recovers from the COVID pandemic and seeks a reset geared toward sustainability and inclusivity, TRIP will help community leaders highlight the stories, methods and practices that are moving the needle and proving what is possible.

Why Colombia?

Tourism Cares, the largest nonprofit in the United States focused on sustainability launched its Meaningful Travel Map of Colombia in 2021 in partnership with the U.S. travel industry and ProColombia after assessing the unique strengths in Colombian social enterprises, growth in inbound and regional travel, and readiness for a pivot to sustainable tourism. In fact, Colombia is one of the leading countries with a national Sustainability Policy. Colombia was selected worldwide for the Tourism Cares delegation in November 2021; this fall, leaders from around the world will visit to launch the project and meet with social entrepreneurs.

Who are the key stakeholders?

In addition to Tourism Cares, the project’s lead organization, Collective Impulse is co-directing the project. Collective Impulse is a young, innovative nonprofit dedicated to sustainable impact investments. Their local formula includes vetting social enterprises, using storytelling for business change and supporting entrepreneurs and cultural change agents. TRIP has been grateful and enthusiastic to join these globally recognized leaders in forwarding this project.

“We are grateful to Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy for their support of our dream of “Change Sessions” for the visibility and empowerment of our dedicated communities –  building peace and preserving the cultural heritage of Colombia. Our videos and storytelling are a huge opportunity for Colombia.”

– Collective Impulse CEO Lizeth Riano

Who will benefit from this project?

The 10 heritage communities and social enterprises directly impacted by this project span the country:

Son Bata, Mangle and Moravia Tours of Medellin, Breaking Borders of Bogota, Jaguar Shamans of the Amazon, Rafting for Peace of Caguán, Wasikamas of Nariño, Marimba of the Pacific, Tambores de Lamba of Palenque, Ninha and Bazurto of Cartagena and Chiribiquete National Park, the largest rainforest park in the World.

We are honored and privileged to work alongside such innovate change agents and invite you to join us in supporting the future of sustainable tourism in Colombia.

“This is not just about art. As an American, I have taken for granted that I have always had freedom of expression. I can make posters and march in front of the White House, whereas Syrians, if they make a post on Facebook, can be tortured or arrested or their family can be killed.”
—David Henry Gerson

Q. Your film, The Story Won’t Die, tells the gripping history of a group of Syrian artists who fled Syria during the Syrian Civil War and are now practicing in various European and U.S. cities, grappling with the loss of their homeland, and coming to terms with what it means to be a ‘refugee artist.’ What prompted you to make the film?

A. My short film All These Voices, which was in a way also about refugee artists, but at the end of WWII, won the Student Academy Award in 2016 and that same year I saw a short documentary that also won that award. It brought my attention to the refugee crisis.

The current refugee crisis globally is the largest ever, with approximately 83 million people displaced. The Syrian Civil War caused the greatest single displacement of people since WWII. My parents and grandparents were refugees after that war. My father helped his father chisel in stone a monument to those who died, “Never Forget, and Never Forgive.” He later worked for the Justice Department in the Office of Special Investigations as a Nazi hunter. I grew up with the idea of accountability and that actions must be taken when something is morally unjust.

So as I started doing research for The Story Won’t Die, I remember reading about this band, handing out their own CDs on a beach in Lesvos. They were not the standard image of refugees that I had learned from U.S. media. They were rock stars, musicians, artists. I met the producer Odessa Rae, and we shared a mutual interest in art as a means of processing crisis, and we went from there.

Q. Your father was Allan Gerson, a lawyer, writer, and the son of Jewish refugees from Poland.

A. I was thinking about his legacy as I was making the film. The final shooting took place in September 2019, and he died in December of 2019. I moved to Washington, D.C. to take care of him. I took over editing and was weaving these stories together while my father was dying upstairs. That changes you. Everyone in the film was comforting me. They have been through grief, and the things they said and the kindness they showed to me after he died were some of the most comforting during those days. While filming, I spoke with them about his journey, often, as a way to talk with them about their own experiences, asking them questions and having them open up about their past.

Q. The film tells the story of artists: a Syrian rapper, tortured by Bashar Al-Assad for his lyrics, who uses his music to survive one of our century’s deadliest wars, along with other creative personalities of the uprising, a musician, a breakdancer, and visual artists.

A. The people in the film have been through literal hell. They are incredible, inspiring, and resilient creative people who in the face of despair and destruction have found a way to put to paper or sing or look boldly at the past, which the average human being maybe cannot do. That is the role of the artist in society: to look into the corners that the average human being does not have time for, like for example choreographer Medhat Aldaabal. In the midst of running from hell, sleeping on the streets of Greece, he realized he had the power to transform the darkness. You look at your situation and think, I can use this, I am not a victim. Medhat really examines the price of what it means to not turn away.

The inciting incident of the film starts in Syria, the uprising, but we continue with these artists on their journeys after they have fled. It is not just talking about the processing, but it is an examination into the act of making amazing, bold art. I find these Syrians made a choice, to turn darkness into light or some form of  expression, rather than to let the darkness fester intergenerationally. I think this is how we need to process, in all forms of art, including filmmaking. Art all over the world has the power to get people to look at themselves and at the challenges of life that we do not ordinarily have the time or wherewithal to process.

Q. And what was your own experience making The Story Won’t Die?

A. The process of making a film is one of edifying. I came to realize how little I knew at the start, and frankly how little I still know, well, it’s impossible to really grasp it all. When someone is looking you in the eyes, telling you about how their friend or loved one died because of their lyrics or some sort of a meme on Facebook … it really made me realize that the freedom I enjoy in the United States is mind boggling. I realized I can say whatever I want, and that truly is a beautiful thing.

The film was a journey for me, and I would say the strongest thing I realized was that freedom of expression is something I took for granted. I was acutely aware of this during the Trump administration, and as I was studying Assad it was making me very nervous to see how a dictator can erode those freedoms. They can be whittled away. I have become more cautious that I could lose that. That is a reason to make a film.

For more, thestorywontdie.com and davidhenrygerson.com

David Henry Gerson’s critically lauded film of Syrian artists in exile, The Story Won’t Die, premieres this month via the American Film Institute’s Virtual Film Festival across the United States on June 26 and 27 and live at the organization’s Silver Theater in Washington, DC on June 27th. For more information and to buy tickets, thestorywontdie.com.

New York, New York—South Africa-based photographer Micha Serraf (b. 1994), whose work explores the construction and deconstruction of identity, belonging, Blackness, and masculinity is the 2021 Ritzau Art Prize recipient. The artist is appreciated for their soft, Afrofuturistic work that platforms inclusivity for people of color, genderqueer, and ‘other’ identities who exist on social, creative, and mainstream peripheries. Now in its second year, the prize provides extraordinary global visibility and exposure, professional development, and career enhancing residencies to promising visual artists from the African continent.

Africa enjoys a vibrant, expansive contemporary art scene, but there is limited funding on the continent to provide local artists with residencies. Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy (TRIP) has worked to address the issue since 2017, supporting residencies for promising artists from the continent at The International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York City. In 2020, the Ritzau Art Prize was founded by Colleen Ritzau Leth, Executive Director at TRIP in collaboration with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the first leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora with editions in London, New York, and Marrakesh to provide an expanded level of support.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the prize was announced online today on 1-54.com and @154artfair.

As part of the 2021 New York edition this week, Ms. Leth, a specialist in museums, cultural affairs, and international relations, will introduce a conversation between the artist and Kneo Mokgopa of the Nelson Mandela Foundation taking place during the fair’s virtual 1-54 Forum and on its related and popular podcast.

Said Ms. Leth: “Micha’s intimate yet piercing photographs are made with great sensitivity and depth and delve beautifully into issues of belonging. We are thrilled that Micha will travel to New York City to connect with ISCP and the greater arts community here, and to make new work that investigates their interests in home and identities.”

An exceptional New York City residency and global artist network

Launched in 2020 and continuing annually for three years, recipients are invited to participate in The International Studio & Curatorial Program’s highly regarded residency program in New York City for 90 days and then join a growing, lifelong network of more than 1,500 ISCP alumni in over 85 countriesand a growing cohort of recipients of the Ritzau residency.

Serraf will travel from Cape Town in October and will receive a private studio, show work in Open Studios, meet with visiting critics, speak about their art and practice in a special public talk, and participate in field trips alongside more than 30 peers from at least 25 different countries. In a special interview to tripgiving.org and 1-54.com, the artist told TRIP that they intend to use their time to reclaim the word ‘alien’ and “extend a hand to undermined and peripherized identities.”

Jury includes contemporary African art experts

The artist was competitively selected by the 2021 jury of distinguished contemporary African art experts: Natasha Becker, Curator of African Art at de Young Museum, San Francisco; Omar Kholeif, writer and Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation; and Nontobeko Ntombela, curator and Head of Department, History of Art, at the Wits School of Arts, Johannesburg. Added Ms. Becker: “Serraf’s conceptual practice will yield rich rewards in a city like New York. As an emerging artist, I believe the prize offers Serraf the opportunity to take their work to another level.”

A new prize in a high-profile three year cycle

The second year of the three year prize cycle builds on TRIP’s commitment to provide artists from the continent with dynamic, immersive residencies, including inaugural recipient Cameroonian painter and installation artist Adjani Okpu-Egbe (b. 1979), whose raw, expressive art investigates African colonial history and political activism. Previously, TRIP supported ISCP residencies for artists from the African continent including Younes Baba-Ali (2019), whose wry, subversive art often takes place in the public streets of North Africa; Nigerian artist Modupeola Fadugba (2018), whose affecting paintings and works on paper explore issues of identity representation and access; and Kiluanji Kia Henda (2017), a self-taught Angolan artist whose art work explores themes of identity, politics, and perception of post-colonialism and modernism in Africa and was recently acquired by Tate Modern in London.

Ms. Leth, together with Robin Tauck, a philanthropist and business leader, invests in individuals and organizations creating bold and daring cultural responses to today’s social and humanitarian challenges. A special area of focus includes artists and thinkers active in creating cross cultural dialogue, mutual understanding, and more inclusive, welcoming societies.

“I want to move away from describing these narratives from the angle of hopelessness, loss, and absence. I want to push a more celebratory narrative that is fantastical, soft, and imaginative and fuelled by the unshakable belief in an abundance.”

-Micha Serraf

South Africa-based photographer Micha Serraf (b. 1994), whose work explores the construction and deconstruction of identity, belonging, Blackness, and masculinity, is the 2021 Ritzau Art Prize recipient.

We are honored and grateful to the artist for their interview with us, special to tripgiving.org and 1-54.com about their search for home and embrace of fantasy.

Q. You fled Zimbabwe, live in Cape Town, and “have been searching for home” while at the same are embracing “being an alien.” In your work, you explore alien identities and alien peripheries. Can you talk about this notion of “alien,” and as you say, “figuring out what I am and where I belong?”

A. When we left Zimbabwe, I was almost 10 years old. My mother told us one morning, “Today is your last day of school, say goodbye to your friends.” I remember saying goodbye to my friends as if I was going to see them the following day. After living in South Africa for a couple of years we still felt, “This is not ours. We are not of here.” South Africa is mine but it is not home–Zimbabwe is home, but it is not mine. I am constantly trying to navigate spaces that appear familiar and that I can fully recognize and understand but still feel very surreal and almost two-dimensional–like a set.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Having experienced racism, xenophobia and suspicion while traveling and living with a Zimbabwean passport, I’ve come to accept that perhaps I don’t just feel extra-terrestrial but need rather fully to embrace being an alien.

Q. You say that your work is other-worldly yet familiar, soft and afrofuturistic. How is your socially concerned photography also a platform for inclusivity for other identities that exist on social, creative and mainstream peripheries?

A. My work exists as a sort of map. A navigational tool that I design around a sense of unidentified nostalgia. A nostalgia that I feel deeply for places, time, and spaces that I have never experienced or that may not even exist. I want to take familiar landscapes and well known spaces and photograph them in a way that estranges the perspectives of those who identify strongly with them.

Photography is my medium of choice because it comes with the idea of an objective documentation and truth and therein an almost implicit authority that something exists. This allows viewers to believe what they see and feel for themselves as opposed to primarily trying to relate to me.

My intention is to try and create work for people who do not feel like they belong and for people who feel like they may belong but do not fully recognize the place they belong to.  I think there is some room, or the possibility, to blend this feeling of belonging and disbelonging into an entirely new space altogether. A space where we can design and construct a space based on how we feel, as opposed to attempting to impart new and personal meaning onto an already existing (and potentially painful) one.

Q. May we ask you to talk about this photograph which is a very soft and intimate but piercing photograph made with sensitivity and depth?

A. The title of this piece is a farewell greeting that means “travel well” or “go well” in Shona–the language of my mother’s people. I imagine these were the last words whispered to us before we left. I crafted this parachute out of sheets of satin and sewed diamonds into the fabric. The parachute is made of three colors that pay a subtle homage to the LGBTQI+ genderqueer flag and community. I imagine that when we landed on Earth our parachutes were made of silk and embedded with precious stones.

I want to move away from describing these narratives from the angle of hopelessness, loss and absence. I want to push a more celebratory narrative that is fantastical, soft, and imaginative and fueled by the unshakable belief in an abundance. I am not trying to make work that is intentionally heavy or painful but that celebrates being soft despite the journey, and the sense of community, resilience, and independence that comes with it.

We left and it was hard. I want to praise and commemorate not having had an easy, secure and stationary life and the strength that it demands. The subject in this piece is a friend of mine from Ghana in a completely indigenous South African landscape draped in a satin parachute. How did he get here with nothing on his back? A lot of people have to travel with nothing or arrive with nothing and I would like to recognize the glory of their journey.

Q. Would you talk about the subjects in this affecting, striking photograph and how it relates to your interest in Blackness, queerness, and masculinity?

A. Poshi translates to “one” in English. In this photograph are two South African male-passing people who identify as non-binary and are dear friends. In these bodies of work, I only photographed people I know or who are friends of mine rather than models. People feel more comfortable and safe with someone they know and can trust as there’ll already be an inherent emotional connection. This connection between myself and my subjects is visible to the viewer and aims to encourage them to lower their guard. The act of lowering one’s guard is important to me as my work is an attempt at narrowing the gap between strangers, humans and aliens. I think the closer the subject gets to revealing themselves, the closer the viewer can get to the work. What is important about this photograph is that the person at the bottom shows no physical exertion as if there is no weight on their shoulders. No burden bared. An almost weightlessness to love and support.

Q. You are the second Ritzau Art Prize recipient. How do you plan to use your physical residency in New York City?

A. Recently when I visited the United States of America for the first time, I was registered as a ‘legal alien.’ I found this to be both pejorative and a rather humorous way of formally categorizing someone. Were they aware of my alien origin story or was it just an official way of informing foreign nationals that there are Americans and then there are aliens? Due to a confluence of factors causing hostility in post-apartheid South Africa, the word ‘alien’ is associated with negative connotations and come with xenophobic implications. This reclamation of the word ‘alien’ in my work extends a hand to undermined and peripherized identities.

With this residency, I plan to contact people who also identify as being alien or who have always been treated as such. To create a series of works that are new yet feel safe, peaceful and like home. In these scenes will be some of the people I have made contact with who will help describe the feelings that will inform my work. I think it will be a surreal experience if I am able to relate more closely to the aliens in America than to the local people of South Africa.