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Soft Power, Embassies and Art

How can artists today productively engage with diplomacy? Are we doing our best as a nation to harness the utility of art as a foreign policy tool? And can we identify aspects of an artwork which lends itself most greatly to this cause?

Join Aspen Institute Arts Program Director Damian Woetzel for a roundtable discussion with iconic American artist Joel Shapiro, who has installed more than 30 site-specific, abstract public sculptures in Asia, Europe and North America. The conversation will be introduced by Gordon Giffin, former United States Ambassador to Canada, and will examine cross-cultural dialogue through the lens of Shapiro’s commissioned works at several US government outposts abroad, including at the US Embassy in Ottawa, and at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China, as part of the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies (FAPE).

Event information
Date
Wed Oct 16, 2013
12:00pm - 1:30pm GMT+0000
Location
The Aspen Institute
One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700, Large Conference Room
Washington, DC, United States