ARTSblog

Hannah Jacobson

Quick — point to Dublin, OH on a map.

How about Clinton County, MI; Douglasville, GA; or Missoula, MT? (Zero points if one of those cities is your hometown).

For those of us with a few years between elementary school geography and the present, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if these seemingly arbitrary locations elude us.

Some residents of Taiwan, however, might find Dublin as easily as they would their own hometowns. It’s a similar story for students in Shiga, Japan with Clinton County; Denmark with Douglasville; and Neckargemün, Germany with Missoula.

In Americans for the Arts’ December webinar, produced in tandem with the special report entitled Backyard Diplomacy, we found out that cultural exchange—taking various forms of art that are from, inspired by, or headed to a distinctly foreign locale—is happening every day, in cities small and large, through local arts agencies (LAAs).

The major lesson? LAAs of any size and shape can and should feel empowered to take a field trip around the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

Jonathan Lewis

On May 12, Washington, D.C., will be treated to an unprecedented collaboration between arts institutions and filmmakers. Museums along the National Mall will be showcasing five international films and five American films as part of Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue.

This will also mark the first joint public-private partnership between the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Sundance Institute, the Smithsonian, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Film Forward is a cultural exchange program designed to foster international exchange through film screenings followed by interactive discussions between the audience and the filmmakers. As an art form, film has the ability to communicate the human condition across all languages and cultural barriers. However, what makes this film showcase very special is that the filmmakers themselves have traveled with their films to under-served communities in the United States and across the world.  Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14%

Taking a break from her duties as co-chair of our 2011 National Arts Advocacy Day, Kerry Washington sat down with Americans for the Arts’ Graham Dunstan to discuss her personal arts experiences growing up in New York City, playing Ophelia, approaching acting as a social scientist, cultural diplomacy, and the importance of public funding for the arts.

Popularity: 12%

I have a cat that is not quite one-year old. This seemingly has absolutely nothing at all to do with the subject of the state of public and cultural diplomacy in 2009, except that his habit of waking me pre sun-up when the birds start to sing by delivering a scratchy tongue to the nostrils, meant that on the morning when President Obama delivered his groundbreaking speech on Islam, I was in the kitchen making coffee, trying to remember why I like cats at all, and watching our President live, from Cairo, make history yet again.

Fortunately for my cat, I quickly became captivated by the seriousness of the message, and the profoundness of the moment. It seemed important to forget that it was five o’clock in the morning and the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, to listen to a speech that was premised on seeking a “…new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect…” No small task. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2%