Arts Program Events

In conflict areas around the globe, the best diplomatic efforts still often leave communities torn by patterns of distrust. Can the arts help to transcend prejudice and enable understanding and respect?

The Aspen Arts Strategy Group, a program of the Aspen Institute Arts Program supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, convenes 30 artists, policymakers and arts administrators to tackle issues facing the arts sector, and to develop strategies on how the arts and artists can contribute to the challenges facing society through roundtable discussions, working-groups and presentations. The closed-door sessions - taking place over two days in New York City, on October 2nd and 3rd - aim to build templates for engagement, collaboration and coordination amongst artists, institutions and administrators, in realms from education to healthcare and diplomacy.

On May 16, Michael D. Eisner, Aspen Institute trustee and chair of its Committee on the Arts, hosted the Aspen Institute Arts Program’s inaugural Arts Circle event. This was an opportunity for the program’s engaged supporters to come together and discuss the exciting new arts initiatives under the direction of Damian Woetzel.

This installment of the Washington Ideas Roundtable features Richard Koshalek, Director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, discussing The Museum As Forum: Creative Dialogues for the 21st Century.

The Aspen Institute Arts Program is pleased to announce the first ever US-China Forum on Arts and Culture. Scheduled for November 16 – 19, 2011 in Beijing, China, the Forum will launch a series of cultural exchanges seeking to strengthen mutual understanding between Americans and Chinese. A terrific cast of American cultural representatives – Yo-Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Joel Coen, Amy Tan, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and others – will collaborate and perform with their Chinese artistic counterparts at some of Beijing’s most breathtaking architectural venues such as the National Museum and the National Center for the Performing Arts (also known as the “Egg”.) 

This incisive film examines the profound claim that most, if not all, degenerative diseases can be controlled, or even reversed, by adopting a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Featured are Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist from Cornell, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic; their ground-breaking research shows that heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some forms of cancer can often be prevented by eliminating animal-based and processed foods. We also meet everyday people beset by chronic ailments who learn to change their diets as a primary approach to treatment. Possibly the most life-changing film you will see all summer.

Guest: Creator and executive producer Brian Wendel