For four exhilarating days this November, musicians, actors, directors, dancers, painters, sculptors, and even chefs from the US and China met in Beijing to revel in each other’s cultures at the US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture. But Beijing is just the beginning of the Aspen Institute Arts Program’s mission to integrate the arts into society across the globe.

Beijing...

The forum—organized in partnership among the Institute's Arts Program, which is led by Damian Woetzel, the Asia Society, and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries—was the first in a series of cultural exchanges seeking to strengthen understanding between Americans and Chinese through panel discussions, lectures, film screenings, museum tours, dinners, and performances. At the core of this exchange was an all-star roster of American and Chinese cultural representatives, including author and activist Michael Pollan, dancer Lil Buck, and filmmaker Joel Coen, engaging in personal and reflective dialogue, on their cultures, traditions, innovations, and experiences.

But as remarkable as Beijing was, it was only one of the Institute's Arts Program's initiatives to illuminate the importance of the arts in many sectors of society, from education to urban planning. The opening dinner was hosted by US Ambassador to China Gary Locke at the sprawling yet elegant US Embassy, with its main building wrapped in glass and glowing like a lantern to welcome attendees to dinner. Renowned chef Alice Waters curated the evening's menu, working with local purveyors and farms to create a menu reflective of both American and Chinese culinary traditions.

The remaining forum activities took place at two of Beijing's most breathtaking architectural venues—the National Museum and the National Center for the Performing Arts (affectionately known as the "Egg" in homage to its shape). In a panel on multiculturalism called Growing Up In Two Worlds, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and author Amy Tan discussed their experiences being brought up with influences from two or more cultures and its effect on their artistic output and achievement with the Asia Society's US—China center's director Orville Schell. Tan posited that this duality forced one to "discover what things you believe about yourself" in the midst of tension between differing cultural identities, and all the panelists agreed that contrasting cultures allowed them richer personal narrative and modes of expression.

In a session On Film and Performing: The Actors’ Perspectives, acclaimed actors Meryl Streep, Liu Ye, and Ge You discussed their careers in the cultural mirror that is film. While each actor's career rose to its dramatic heights differently, each panelist professed their great respect for film's ability to provide a cathartic release for audiences and make them feel connected to a larger human experience beyond their own. Through performance one "can break from moral or legal constraints, express [oneself] in ways that [one] wouldn’t dare otherwise," said Liu Ye.

In one of the forum's most energetic evenings, forum participants filled the National Concert Hall at the Egg for A Musical Dialogue, starring Yo-Yo Ma. This event was not meant to be one “where people simply sit down and are entertained," said Woetzel, who directed the program as an interactive performance that fully engaged the audience. Memphis jooker Lil Buck and musician Wu Tong started off the unorthodox evening by entering from the back of the house and performing in the aisles among the audience, breaking the traditional barrier between performer and viewer—further broken later in the performance when Woetzel led the house through an opening excerpt of Balanchine's Serenade.

Asking audience members who usually would have been passive observers to engage with the performance together celebrated not only American and Chinese culture, but also friendship, collaboration, and risk-taking. Many of the evening’s artists performed together for the first time, including a duet of words and music between Ma and Streep, that spontaneously culminated in a competition between the artists as to who could bow lower in admiration of the other. To close the forum, attendees were treated to an exclusive pre release viewing of Streep’s Iron Lady, followed by a discussion with the actress.

…and beyond:

"The Arts Program works to further the positive impact that arts and artists can have on society," said Woetzel, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. The program, which also includes the Aspen Writers Foundation headed by Lisa Consiglio, and the Global Initiative on Arts and Culture, headed by Damien Pwono, promotes the arts as useful and relevant to multiple sectors of society, as reflected in highlights from the past year.

In October, the Institute’s Arts Program brought together arts advocates and public officials, including Chicago Public Schools CEO J.C. Brizard, to discuss the importance of including the arts in public school curriculums, even in an era of shrinking budgets. The discussion used Chicago as a model, since Chicago’s public school system is revamping its curriculum to fit a longer school day. The conversation was led by Woetzel and Ma, and resulted in a pledge to include the arts sector in planning for use of the extended school day. It was announced in May that for the first time, Chicago Public Schools is creating a district-wide Arts Education program. The fall event was held in partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Arts Partnership in Education.

The following month, actress Anne Hathaway and the Public Theater's director, Oskar Eustis, opened an evening probing culture and identity. The event, held in conjunction with The Public Theatre, explored how culture shapes us as individuals and as a society and was aptly titled: Does Culture Make Us Who We Are? A panel including New York Times columnist David Brooks, actor Bill Irwin, the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities Vice Chair Mary Schmidt Campbell, Public Forum Director Jeremy McCarter, and Woetzel debated how social and economic factors have shaped culture’s reach over many decades, and how the arts can contribute to the world we live in and aspire towards.

And because creativity begets creativity, the Arts Program hosted an event in February featuring Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts President Reynold Levy; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Director Richard Koshalek; and Elizabeth Diller, a founding partner of the architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, for a conversation on cultural institutions creating new spaces that emphasize openness, accessibility, and forums for creative communities. DS+R is the firm behind Lincoln Center's recent innovative renovation, the Hirshhorn's upcoming Bubble Project, and New York City’s High Line, a public park built on a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side.

"It was the vision of Sidney Harman to bring the arts back as one of the foundations of the Aspen Institute, as they were at our creation," said the Institute's Executive Vice President of Policy and Public Programs, Elliot Gerson. "And now, under the energetic direction of Michael Eisner and our arts committee, the extraordinary leadership of Damian Woetzel, and the inspiration of our gifted Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence, we are able to bring the sensibilities of artists to all that we do. And given the Institute's core mission to find common ground and shared values, the arts are uniquely powerful as they remind everyone of what we all share as humans."