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Global Initiative on Culture and Society

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Press Release
For immediate release

The Aspen Institute, 23 June 2008
ASPEN CULTURAL DIPLOMACY FORUM

Culture in Conflict / Culture on the Move
November 13 – 15, 2008
Cercle de l'Union Interalliée
33, rue du Faubourg St. Honoré
Paris, France

The Aspen Institute, the Arts Arena, and the Institut Aspen France are pleased to announce the inaugural Aspen Cultural Diplomacy Forum.
The Aspen Cultural Diplomacy Forum is an independent, multidisciplinary, and action-oriented worldwide convening. It builds upon ongoing Aspen Institute public diplomacy roundtables and serves as an annual high-level and neutral platform to:

  • discuss timely issues in the field of cultural diplomacy
  • share information and experiences on the development of diverse media, arts, and cultural resources for the strengthening of international relations, mutual understanding, security, and peace-building efforts
  • seed new actions
  • strengthen global networks
  • recognize and reward excellence and lifetime achievement.

Rationale

  • While the manifold role of cultural expression in affirming identities, building confidence, strengthening social capital and relationships, fostering mutual understanding, and stimulating creativity and innovation is recognized in societies, the arts and culture are still too often relegated to the margins of theory and practice in international relations and development cooperation.
  • Likewise, while the frequent misuse of media, arts, and culture in fanning intolerance, conflict, and violence are also recognized, measures to combat such misuse have been insufficiently thought through, and the extraordinary conflict-prevention and peace-building potential of the arts and culture remains woefully under-exploited.
  • At the same time, the conditions and content of cultural production, distribution, consumption, and exchange are being profoundly modified by the new technologies and other drivers of globalization, opening up unprecedented realms and possibilities for the arts and culture.
  • The Forum will therefore place issues of the arts and culture at the center of international public policy debate, engage these inter-linked sets of challenges, and initiate new actions for addressing them. Accordingly, this inaugural Forum will focus on knowledge-sharing and actions related to
  • Culture, Security, Conflict Resolution, and Peace-Building
  • Cultural Rights and Intellectual Property
  • Looted Art and the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflicts
  • New Money, New Markets, New Cultural Exchange Models
  • New Media, New Technologies, Cultural Preservation and Presentation
  • New Public/Private Partnerships
  • Leadership Development, Professional Networks, and Funding

Format
The format is built upon the Aspen Ideas Festival model, including:

  • Keynote addresses
  • plenary panels
  • in-depth open and private discussions in small groups

Speakers
Confirmed speakers include

  • Madeleine Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State
  • Martin Davidson, Director General, British Council
  • Amir Dossal, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships
  • Allan Gerson, President, AG International Law, PLLC
  • Vicki Goldberg, photography critic,  author of The Power of Photography
  • Peter Goldmark, head Environmental Defense, former chairman and CEO of the International Herald Tribune, former president of the Rockefeller Foundation
  • Sydney Harman, Member of Council on Foreign Relations
  • Roald Hoffmann, Nobel laureate in chemistry, Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, Cornell University, poet and playwright
  • Ellen Hume, Research Director of the Center for Future Civic Media, M.I.T.
  • Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute
  • Yudhishthir Raj Isar, President, Culture Action Europe and Jean Monnet Professor at The American University of Paris
  • Sean Kelly, curator, founder Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
  • James Landon, senior partner Jones Day, General Counsel Woodruff Center for the Arts
  • Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts
  • Olara Otunnu, Former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
  • Fred Ritchin, Professor of Photography and New Media, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, director of PixelPress, former picture editor The New York Times Magazine
  • Ambassador John Shattuck, CEO,  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
  • Ellen Sorrin, Director, the George Balanchine Trust, Managing Director of the New York Choreographic Institute (New York City Ballet)
  • Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale University School of Art, Consulting Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Director of the 2007 Venice Biennale

Participants

Government officials, corporate and civic leaders, diplomats, arts and culture executives, media and public policy professionals, philanthropists, scholars, and artists from around the world.

Complete list of speakers, program details, and registration information will be available online shortly.