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Recommendations for U.S. Government Efforts

• Balance the current focus of public diplomacy and programs that promote U.S. culture within the Middle East, with some recognition that support for regional artists is also an important objective.
• Focus on helping the region's artists and institutions make the creative industries a source of growth and employment.
• Make more-vocal efforts to include cultural freedom as a critical component of promoting reform and countering extremism across the region. Provide training programs for lawyers, policymakers, and politicians on the importance of allowing and protecting freedom of expression.
• Prioritize support for nongovernmental efforts to promote cultural expression.

Recommendations for Nongovernmental Efforts

• Encourage market-based companies that help distribute and fund work by regional artists.
• Develop local boards to assist in identifying the challenges artists face in creating and distributing their work. Connect these local boards with partners in the West who have the expertise to help artists overcome these challenges.
• Facilitate exchanges between regional artists and organizers of established international arts festivals. The exchanges should be designed to help artists gain the practical skills necessary to organize regional arts festivals that raise the profile of their work and attract tourism revenue.
• Develop metrics for nongovernmental organizations engaged in regional training (e.g., in media or film production) to determine the success of trainees in maintaining jobs in their fields.
• Increase partnerships between public and private institutions working in the Middle East art arena to strengthen the efforts of each.