Event | Visa Application and Legal Issues for Immigrant Artists Workshop
Get an overview of the legal options for immigrant artists seeking to pursue an artistic career in the United States.
This workshop, presented by Matthew Covey, Esq., Executive Director and Julianne Wagner, Senior Case Manager, from Tamizdat, will cover basic immigration law and visa procedures in addition to unique legal options for artists. Time will be allotted for questions from the audience, and artists in all disciplines are welcome to join.
Title: Visa Application and Legal Issues for Immigrant Artists
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: New York Foundation for Arts, 20 Jay Street, Suite 740, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Cost: Free. Registration is recommended via Eventbrite.
Questions: Contact [email protected]
Event Accessibility:
New York Foundation for the Arts is committed to making events held at the NYFA office at 20 Jay Street in Brooklyn accessible. If you are mobility-impaired and need help getting to NYFA’s office for events held on premises, we are pleased to offer complimentary car service from the wheelchair accessible Jay Street-MetroTech subway station courtesy of transportation sponsor Legends Car Service. Please email [email protected] or call 212.366.6900 ext. 219 between 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM at least three business days in advance of the event to coordinate. The elevator access point for pickup is at 370 Jay Street, on the NE corner of Jay and Willoughby Streets.
About Matthew Covey, Esq., Executive Director, Tamizdat:
Matthew Covey, Esq.has worked in music and arts immigration since the 90s. As a member of the critically acclaimed US/Slovak indie-rock band Skulpey, as Knitting Factory Records’ Amsterdam booking agent, and as the manager of Grammy Award-winning band, the Klezmatics, Covey’s varied career has given him a broad understanding of the entertainment industries. He has presented and chaired panels on artist mobility issues at numerous conferences, including SXSW, CMJ, WOMEX, Folk Alliance, APAP, The Great Escape, M4Music, YouBloom, HWCH, IndieWeek, Western Arts Alliance, Mundial Montreal, NXNE, The Edinburgh Fringe, Output Belfast, NY Winter Jazz, FimPro, and Eurosonic. Covey is a founding director of Tamizdat, a 501©(3) non-profit that promotes international cultural exchange. He is president of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States, and founder of ContraBanned. He holds a J.D. from New York Law, an M.A. focussing on postcolonial literary theory from University College Dublin, a B.A. in English from Oberlin College, and is admitted to the New York Bar.
About Julianne Wagner, Senior Case Manager, Tamizdat:
Julianne Wagner has been a case manager at Tamizdat/CoveyLaw since 2014. She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, whose coursework centered around popular music history, philosophies of listening, mass media as tied to the classics, and far more painfully hybridized critical theory. Throughout her collegiate career, she worked as station manager and hosted a weekly new-music program at WNYU. She has worked in various roles throughout the music and arts media industries — as a contributor to arts/music publications including The Deli Magazine and Czech arts magazine Umelec, as a PR intern and packer at indie labels, and as record clerk at the now-defunct Kim’s Video and Music.
About Tamizdat:
Founded in 1998 by an international group of musicians, Tamizdat is a nonprofit organization that facilitates international cultural exchange. Tamizdat’s mission is motivated by the conviction that the international exchange and mobility of culture is fundamental to the growth of global civil society. Tamizdat has been involved with a wide range of activities aimed at facilitating international cultural exchange. They have booked festival showcases in the U.S. and Europe, organized tours, sponsored events, and ran a CD distribution coalition. Since 2000, Tamizdat’s primary program activities have sought to help the international performing arts community address problems presented by U.S. immigration policy and procedure.
About TamizdatAVAIL:
Tamizdat’s Artist Visa Assistance and Information Line provides pro bono legal assistance with U.S. visa problems to the international performing arts community. It is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and run in cooperation with New York Law School.
Please be advised that the content of this workshop does not constitute legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. It serves, instead, as a source of basic immigration law and legal information of interest to immigrant artists and others seeking to pursue a career in the United States. Individuals should contact an immigration attorney at the time they are seeking help as immigration laws change frequently.
Click here for more information on the Immigrant Artist Program. And don’t forget to sign up for the monthly Con Edison IAP Newsletter to receive opportunities and events as well as artist features directly to your inbox.
Image: Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, Alumni Mixer, October 2017; Photo Credit: NYFA
