Art Exchange With Our Sister City, Monrovia

(Dayton, OH) – The Dayton Sister City Committee (DSCC) is a member of Sister Cities International. SCI was created by President Eisenhower in 1956 in conjunction with a conference on citizen diplomacy. Its mission is to “Promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.”

In keeping with that mission, the DSCC has reached out to artists in Monrovia, our sister city in Liberia, to engage with local artists and select one to visit Dayton for a multi-week residency. When asking DSCC Executive Chair, Arch Grieves, what he would like to see come out of this artist visit, Arch stated “My hope for this residency exchange is that we will be able to use the power of art to connect our two cities of Dayton and Monrovia, because I think that artists are uniquely positioned to help us fulfill our mission…”

After a thorough judging process where each of the nearly 20 applicants submitted brief essays and 4-10 images of their artwork, DSCC has selected an artist to visit Dayton for the nearly month long residency. The visit will occur in July 2019 and the chosen artist’s work will also be exhibited at the Dayton Society of Artists and possibly other locations. The plan is also for the artist’s residency to last over the Liberian Independence Day and have some activities related to the holiday here locally.

While more news on the chosen artist and the events surrounding their visit will be forthcoming, I personally wanted to display some of the many other talented artists of Monrovia who applied for this opportunity and sought to fulfill the mission of SCI. “I am very grateful to each person whose artwork is on display here… I only wish we could have invited all of them to Dayton.” Arch added.

Please, enjoy some of the artwork submitted through the application process from the artists listed below who granted us permission to post their work. Also, look out for updates on future DSCC activities related to Monrovia and Dayton’s other sister cities: