About
Art is how communities
explain themselves.
A Maryland-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing South Asian American arts and cultural exchange.
Hummingbird Art and Culture Foundation works at the meeting point of South Asian heritage and American public life.
We began in Virginia in 2017 and were re-established in Maryland in 2022, where we operate today as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In that time we have presented community festivals, performances, screenings and cultural gatherings across the Washington, D.C.–Maryland region, and honored artists and community figures whose work carries a culture forward.
The premise is straightforward. South Asian American communities have been part of American life for generations, and their artists — painters, calligraphers, filmmakers, poets, musicians — are making work of real ambition. That work is under-shown. Audiences outside the community rarely encounter it. Audiences inside it rarely see it treated with the seriousness it deserves.
We exist to close that distance: to support the artists making the work, and to build the public occasions where it can be seen.
We do this through three areas of work — visual arts and exhibitions, film and storytelling, and community and cultural dialogue — and we do it in partnership, with museums, universities, venues, civic organizations and the community itself.
What we stand for
Our mission
To advance South Asian American arts and cultural exchange — supporting the artists and educators who make the work, and creating free public occasions where it can be seen.
Our vision
A country where South Asian American creativity is fully visible, and where art is a shared language between communities.
Cultural rootedness
We begin from a specific heritage, not from a general idea of diversity.
Public access
Our programming is free or low-cost wherever it can be.
Artistic integrity
We support the work artists want to make, not the work that is easiest to fund.
Community
We build with the D.C.–Maryland South Asian community, not on its behalf.
Collaboration
We work through partnership — with museums, universities, venues and civic institutions.
Umar John
Umar John is a filmmaker, producer, musician, poet, entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist. He is the Founder and Chairman of Hummingbird Art and Culture Foundation Ltd. and President and CEO of Hummingbird Film Studios.
Through film, exhibitions, cultural programming and community initiatives, he works to create meaningful platforms for artists and storytellers while advancing cultural exchange across the Washington, D.C.–Maryland region.
“Art carries our memory, our identity and our possibilities. When we create space for artists and audiences to meet, culture does not simply survive — it moves forward.”
Umar John, Founder & Chairman