NICA

NICA is an independent not-for-profit resource development centre for culture  and the arts located in Yangon. Established in early 2003 , NICA has 2 main objectives:

(1) to identify and support those aspects of arts and cultural practices  within Myanmar that are in need of resource-building to facilitate their  development and

(2) to facilitate access and exchanges between Myanmar arts and cultural  practitioners with counterparts, organizations and opportunities outside Myanmar.

 

NICA's Facilities:

Office  , resource and reference library, archive, exhibition and activity  spaces, IT training capacity, studio space, kitchen, accommodation for  artists and writers-in-residence.

 

NICA'S PROGRAMMES OVERVIEW 2003- 2004

NICA's programmes are divided into 3 categories: Residency, Research & Development and Training Programmes within Myanmar/Burma; International Networking and Resource-sharing  Programmes and General Programmes/ Services .

 

Activities and Objectives:

International Networking & Resource-sharing Programmes

In  order to address the lack of contact, interaction and access on the  part of Myanmar art and cultural practitioners with and to their  counterparts, information, knowledge and opportunities from outside the  country, one of NICA's primary objectives is to facilitate exchange,  collaboration, networking and resource-sharing between Myanmar arts and  cultural practitioners with those from neighbouring regions and internationally. We encourage and actively invite local and  international artists, writers, historians, educators and organisers to  come into Myanmar to share knowledge and resources, and to engage in  creative exchanges and collaborations with Myanmar artists, writers and  cultural participants.

NICA seeks to connect the  Myanmar practitioner to the various discourses, activities, practices  and organizations outside. To begin with, NICA is focusing on creating  regional networks for artistic and intellectual exchange and discourse,  primarily within the South Asian, Southeast Asian and Mekong regions.

 

Writing Big Books for Children workshop by Suchen Christine Lim, novelist & curriculum developer from Singapore. Sept 2003

 

Myanmar artist Pe Nyunt Way, on exchange residency in Cambodia, giving a drawing workshop at Reyum Art School.

 

Residency, Research & Development and Training Programmes

In  line with our objective of nurturing resource development for arts and  cultural practices, NICA supports the research and development  processes of art making through residency, discussions, workshops and research grants; as well as the writing, translation and publishing of  art and cultural studies and research by Myanmar arts practitioners,  writers and researchers.

NICA also offers training  schemes, internships and informal education programmes to contribute to  the building of broad based organizational support structures and  skills for the development of arts and cultural practices. These  include project management and organizational skills, IT skills,  writing, curatorial, marketing and other such professional skills and knowledge. We also offer creative programmes for young people which  enables them to express themselves creatively through drawing,  painting, photography, video and literary writings.
 

Drawing class by Myanmar artist Maung Win Hla, part of NICA's Young Adults Training programme (YATP)
 

NICA's  programmes have been sponsored by : Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands ;  Japan Foundation Asia Center ; LEE Foundation, Singapore ; Arts Network  Asia; Singapore International Foundation

 

Contact Us:

NICA  welcomes interested parties to contact us about possible collaborations  and participation in our programmes, as well as contributions and  donations in all forms for our various facilities, programmes and activities. Please direct all enquiries and correspondence to nica@mail2art.com

Address: Yangon, Myanmar (for exact address please enquire)

E-mail: nica@mail2art.com

Manager: U Myo Swe


Update for 2007 Onwards:

Our office and facilities in Yangon are currently closed and we are carrying out only ad hoc projects. We are still coordinating residencies for artists on a very selective basis. Applications should be sent to nica@mail2art.com. Due to our limited resources, we apologise that we would not be able to reply to each enquiry and/or application. Thank you.