The mission of BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD is to unite all Bulgarian artists living outside the borders of Bulgaria and to make the Bulgarian art and culture more popular and well known around the world.

BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD was found with the following goals:

· to participate actively in the cultural life of the US and Bulgaria by organizing exhibitions, lectures, workshops, museum visits, etc.

· to establish contacts with similar organizations in Bulgaria and around the world;

· to popularize the art created by its members;

· to help the exchange of information about art shows, art competitions and art galleries between its members;

· to help the individual work of its members;

· to work for the creation of a good image of the Bulgarian art and culture abroad;

Center of BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD is Chicago, IL. Branches of the organization could be founded everywhere in the world after contacting the center in Chicago, IL.

Executive bodies of The BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD are the General Assembly (called for a meeting once a year) and the Executive Circle, made of five people. The Executive Circle is elected by the general assembly with a majority of 2/3 of the present members for a mandate of two years with a maximum duration of two consecutive mandates.

Member of The BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD could be every person who creates art and wants to work together with the rest of the members of the organization under its established bylaws. Member of The BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD could be also a person, who doesn’t make art, but enjoys it and wants to help those who are engaged in the process of creating it.
To become a member of The BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD a person needs to apply using a written request(form), include a photo of themselves and few images of artwork(prints or jpgs). The decision of The Executive Circle should be made within 30 days. Membership due is $ 40.00 per year.

BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD-past, present and future:

BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD was found on April the 15th of 2007 in Chicago by several American-Bulgarian artists with the idea to promote the Bulgarian art and culture throughout the world and to educate the society about it. The organization aims to unify the efforts of all Bulgarian artists living outside the borders of Bulgaria and make the Bulgarian culture more well-known through art shows, public lectures, museum visits, art workshops, art walks, etc.

The members of BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD at the moment are mostly from the U.S. The center of BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD is Chicago, IL, where the biggest Bulgarian community in America lives (it’s estimated between 50,000 and 120,000 people)

Since its inception BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD has organized several art shows, along with continuing individual shows of its members. The debut exhibition was held in Curb Gallery, New York in May 2007. The next show Beyond Borders I was held in Chicago, IL in August of 2007 at Richard J. Daley Center and showed the art of 28 artists (Bulgarians from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Ft. Lauderdale, New Orleans, and Denver) Both events brought a lot of attention and appreciation from the general public.

In 2008 BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD organized Beyond Borders II at Daley Center in the month of August, where 25 people participated (Bulgarian artists from Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Wichita).

The calendar of 2008 also included participation of 10 members of BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD in October’s Art Walk Ravenswood, an event from the official artist month in Chicago, and a small group show in ARC Gallery in November. BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD introduced also a program called “Bulgarian Artists from abroad visiting America”, the first guest of which was the Croatian sculptor of Bulgarian origin Konstantin Kostov. His Trash-art show was held in Woodstock, IL in October of 2008.

For 2009 BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD has planned three new group shows, as well an art workshop, called “Indiana Dunes Art”, which was to be held in April of 2009. Beyond Borders III is scheduled to open in May of 2009 at Daley Center, Chicago.

With all of these activities BULGARIAN ARTISTS ABROAD believe that the Bulgarian culture will reach more people around the world and will make them more aware of its merits.