Simurgh Arts: Championing the Artistic Gulf Coast
Simurgh Arts is an artist-founded organization. Much like the Simurgh in the Iranian Epic, The Shahnameh, we want to protect and nurture. We understand that Southern artists face the double (or myriad) jeopardy of living in a place often disparaged by those living outside of our region of this country. In addition to this professional threat, Southern artists live and practice in places that are increasingly difficult, climate wise, to inhabit. Not only do we bear the financial and safety ramifications of this rapid ecological change—many of us face governments that are increasingly hostile to our existence, but we overhear the idea that we should be shamed for where we live. We see that we are punished for being punished.
Rather than continuing to explain this fact to those who would punish or disparage us for being oppressed by our own gerrymandered governments, we will do what we have always done. Like the Simurgh, the artists of Simurgh Arts understand ourselves as powerful, and we want to shield, care for, and uplift artists in the Gulf Coast Region.
Another way to understand Simurgh Arts? Meet Zāl.
Zāl, resting in the Lamplight AVL residency studio. Asheville, June 2024. As a kitten, they were found in a Houston parking lot right off I10. Terrified, but too sick to run away, the kitten was taken home by artists that wanted her to have a chance at life. They are named after Zāl, from Ferdowsi’s The Shahnameh, who was born different and abandoned in the wilderness by a family that couldn’t accept them. If the Simurgh would not have found the abandoned child and taken them in as their own, Zāl’s story would have ended in a lonely and dark wilderness.
Simurgh Arts hopes to similarly offer a vital and life altering support to the artists of our region. We want the beauty of this story’s turn. We want to see our region’s artists thrive. We exist for this purpose and to connect Gulf Coast artists to other powerful artists.
