International Association of Sufism receives $5,000 arts grant Salma Arastu to create 25 poem-paintings of series “Turning Rumi: Singing Verses of Love, Unity and Freedom.” June 2012-April 2013- The International Association of Sufism in San Rafael has received a $5,000 grant from the East Bay Community Foundation to support artist Salma Arastu’s project “Turning Rumi: Singing Verses of Love, Unity and Freedom.” The grant, from the Foundation’s East Bay Fund for Artists, will be used for the creation of 25 new poem-paintings and for exhibiting them in two shows to be held in the Bay Area in the spring of 2013. “The International Association of Sufism has been serving our community for over twenty six years,” said (insert name and title of someone here). “The grant from the East Bay Community Foundation will give us additional resources to help Salma Arastu to create 25 new poem-paintings of her series Turning Rumi: Singing Verses of Love, Unity and Freedom.” The Association is a non profit organization founded in 1983. It a United Nations NGO/DPI and has members from around the globe. The East Bay Fund for Artists provides support for composers, playwrights, choreographers, visual artists and media artists. Through it, the East Bay Community Foundation has granted more than $1.8 million to commission 132 new works by 193 Bay Area artists since 2004.