Center Stage logo, with blue text and 3 red vertical lines

Center Stage is a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

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Since 2012, the program has welcomed important new voices into our national cultural dialogue, enlarging our world, and sharing diverse, global perspectives directly with communities in the U.S., and via real time virtual interactions, with fans and allies abroad.

Having completed its fourth season in late 2018, 29 performing arts ensembles from nine nations -- Algeria, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, and Vietnam -- have toured from coast to coast, hosted by colleges and universities, festivals, music clubs, and cultural centers. Each tour includes residencies in large cities and small towns, and a range of activities from performances, workshops, and discussions, to artist-to-artist exchanges, master classes, and community gatherings.

Center Stage artists engage with audiences onstage and online sharing their work with audiences in the U.S. and friends and fans at home to build mutual understanding through shared cultures and values.

From 2012 to 2017, Center Stage

  • Visited 85 communities in 34 states and Washington, DC

  • Hosted 154 artists in 24 ensembles from Algeria Haiti, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Tanzania and Vietna

  • Booked 227 performances -- indoors and out, ticketed & free

  • Planned 642 educational, community, and artist-to-artist activities

  • Traveled 91,000+ cumulative tour miles

  • Connected with 141,000+ U.S. audience members, participants, and students

  • Garnered tens of millions global media impressions (online and print)

  • Engaged millions more people around the globe through social media and online content

Center Stage artists engage with audiences onstage and online, sharing their work with audiences in the U.S. and friends and fans at home to build mutual understanding through shared cultures and values.

Center Stage is made possible in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, and with support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.

Keep up with Center Stage on Facebook and on Twitter and at www.centerstageUS.org.