The New East Festival is a multimedia exhibition sharing groundbreaking work from contemporary photographers from across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Many of these photographers document their communities in new and unexpected lights as their countries take a new place on the world stage, reclaiming their identities and their voices after decades of Soviet imperialism.

Others look inward, tracing individual voyages of discovery made as a new, fiercely independent cohort comes of age in the 21st century.

In the process, it seeks to introduce audiences to vital issues shaping Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia today, delving into its rich patchwork of overlapping identities in a bid to move beyond monotone stereotypes.