Hanan Arts

Hanan Arts: Miami Stories. Global Impact.

Hanan Arts is a Miami-based, women-led nonprofit using documentary film, dance, and cultural exchange to amplify women’s stories and create social impact. Through films, workshops, exhibitions, performances, and dialogue, we foster cultural understanding, connection, and belonging.

In Miami-Dade, where migration and intersecting cultures shape our collective identity, Hanan Arts creates spaces for women’s experiences to inform the stories we tell about ourselves and our world.

Their stories belong at the center of Miami’s cultural life.

Deep Roots. A Distinctive Miami Voice.

Hanan Arts’ roots reach back to 1996, when the nonprofit arm of the Mideastern Dance Exchange school was established in Miami Beach. In 2008, Miami-born filmmaker, dancer, and cultural producer Tiffany Madera took the helm, restructuring the organization as Hanan Arts and bringing her signature vision: a platform using women’s storytelling, artistic practice, and cultural exchange to advance social impact locally and globally.

Madera’s Afro-Chinese Cuban heritage, decades of Egyptian dance practice, and scholarship in performance and Latin American and Caribbean studies ground Hanan Arts in Miami’s cultural complexity. Her vision connects personal histories with broader questions of identity, migration, home, and belonging—linking Miami’s diverse communities with conversations across the Global South.

Four Pillars. One Social Impact Mission.

1. Documentary Film: Making Women’s Lives Visible

Our films preserve histories, challenge narrow representations, and bring women’s experiences into public conversation.

• Havana Habibi explores Cuban women, dance, diaspora, and the cultural connections between Miami and Cuba.

• Tía Celia, in production, revisits Celia Cruz’s legacy through the perspective of her niece, Celia Cody, centering family memory and Afro-Cuban identity.

• Balady, in production, follows women across Miami, Brazil, and Egypt as they navigate dance, migration, and belonging.

Through screenings and dialogue, these films connect intimate stories to shared human experiences.

2. The Balady Project: Movement, Belonging, and Community

Through dance, oral history, dialogue, and visual art, we create participatory spaces where women explore identity, share knowledge, and build community.

Programs such as Baladi Talks and the Global South Movements exhibition connect artistic expression with questions of place and belonging. Collaborations with Green Space Miami, the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab, and others bridge culture, scholarship, and the environment.

Performance collaborations, including Tarab Duende with the National Arab Orchestra and Miami Beach Bandshell, bring cultural exchange to life through music, movement, and shared experience.

3. Shimmy Shift Pivot: Art, Connection, and Well-Being

Launched as a digital dialogue series in 2020, Shimmy Shift Pivot created connection during a time of isolation. Now a podcast co-hosted by Tiffany Madera and Dr. Genesis Ettienne, it explores women’s creativity, culture, emotional well-being, and transformation.

4. Creative Retreats and Global Cultural Exchange

Our international collaborations and developing creative retreats connect women through shared artistic practice and storytelling. Partnerships across the Caribbean, Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East bring global perspectives into Miami while sharing our city’s stories with the world.

A Trusted Part of Miami-Dade’s Cultural Fabric

Hanan Arts has presented screenings and public programs with Pérez Art Museum Miami, O Cinema, Coral Gables Art Cinema, FIU CasaCuba, and the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection. Support from the Knight Foundation, Ware Foundation, Green Family Foundation, Coral Gables Community Foundation and Miami-Dade County has helped sustain our work.

These relationships connect artists, scholars, institutions, and communities—strengthening Miami’s cultural landscape through inclusive storytelling and cross-cultural dialogue.

Our impact is felt when a film preserves a history, a workshop builds belonging, or a conversation opens space for a previously unheard voice.

Invest in the Stories That Shape Our Future