About a year ago in a little bookstore café in Istanbul, Turkey, a Syrian refugee played music on a borrowed Syrian instrument that looked a bit like a guitar. The experience for observer and musician intertwined and both felt the emotional tug of the melody that one observer described as haunting. “It was clearly emotional for him,” said American diplomat Holly Holzer Bass, and it made her wonder about whether the Syrian culture could survive after brutal wars pushed the Syrians out of their home country into Turkey.

Man by Falak Al Ghazzi. Art created with smoke using a technique called fumage. Al Ghazzi created the tiles separately and assembled into a mosaic.

As a diplomat living in Turkey, Holzer Bass knew that the Turkish people and government had provided billions of dollars in humanitarian support for Syrians, but felt there was something more that needed to be done. “I thought, ‘Helping people to be able to survive is critical in a crisis, but music and arts and culture — how do you help a culture survive?’” She decided to host a gallery of art by Syrian artists, which would provide creative opportunities for the refugees as well as, hopefully, bring in money for their struggling households.

The exhibition was a hit with 150 people in attendance. Some of the Syrian refugee artists sold their paintings and one refugee filmmaker debuted his film. The artists of Syria — painters, writers, musicians and filmmakers — who fled their homes amid devastating warfare and under threat of death now have a way to showcase their art and feed their families. Not just an exhibition, the event was the beginning of bringing refugees into the Turkish art scene, connecting them with Turkish artists and helping them integrate within the local artistic community.

Face by Hiba Aizouq, 2013.

Holzer Bass believes in cultural sharing, that knowledge comes with cultural exchange and, as a society with a multi-cultural makeup, we can learn from each other. But she doesn’t want the Syrians to lose their rich culture along the way. While sharing cultural traditions, “you also have to maintain a contemporary culture as well. Art can be incredibly powerful and can help people heal and grow.”

Her embassy acquaintances have also taken on her mission to provide economic and creative opportunities to refugees in their areas. Embassies in The Hague, London, Zagreb, Berlin, Stockholm and several other locations are hosting galleries filled with art created by refugees.

Woman by Eyas Jafaar.

The effort to breathe new life into a culture shattered by war and a people separated by miles and severed by death carries on through the art they create. More galleries are planned for Turkey and other sites, but for now, Holzer Bass will focus on artists who film stories.

She’s planning a large-scale film festival to showcase films made by Syrian refugees and hoping to get partners and locations around the world to broadcast simultaneously. “It will be hard to do without big funding, but we can start smaller,” said Holzer Bass. She and a film-making artist are currently identifying partners and films for the festival.

Houssam Alloum.

Beyond the altruistic goals of finding ways for Syrian refugees to make a living, giving them creative opportunities and helping them heal through art, Holzer Bass wishes the rest of the world understood that what the media portrays about Syrian refugees isn’t always accurate.

She wants people, “to be able to see beyond the images of T.V.” She wants people

to see who Syrians are. To understand that refugees are people just like the rest of us in America. Something horrible happened and their lives were turned upside down, but they’re still engineers, doctors, writers and filmmakers who have something to offer us … to see the power of art — how the visual arts, the written arts, the performing arts are a critical part of any society and they play a key role in who we are, how we express ourselves and how we tell our story.

One artist who attended the gallery’s opening approached Holzer Bass that night, his face beaming. He didn’t have to talk about the war or what brought him to Turkey from Syria. That night was his. “Thank you so much!” he told her. “You just gave us the gift of talking about art.”

More of the artists’ work can be seen at www.artfromexile.org.

Art from Exile does not claim to represent the Department of State or its policies, or those of the U.S. Government.