On March 13, the director of MusicUnitesUS, Prof. Judith Eissenberg (MUS), brought together four esteemed individuals in a panel focusing on the field of cultural advocacy and making a difference through the arts.
The program started with the moderator, ethnomusicologist and Dartmouth College professor Theodore Levin, introducing the four panelists and explaining the layout of the evening. Each of the panelists presented for around 12 minutes. The presentations were followed by an hour of discussion.
Richard Kurin, the under secretary of History, Art and Culture at the Smithsonian discussed the Haiti Project, which attempts to contain what Kurin called a "cultural disaster" following Haiti's massive 2010 earthquake, which destroyed the presidential palace, historic churches and the National Museum, along with many homes.
He pointed out that the United States does not have a ministry of culture or a fund for cultural emergency relief, and that this is a consistent dilemma in the field of cultural advocacy and cultural diplomacy.
Kurin also spoke about the different ways in which the Smithsonian partnered with different organizations and the community to preserve and recover art pieces and created residencies and art therapy programs for children.
Ethel Raim, the artistic director for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance then talked about her organization, based in New York City.
The organization focuses on preserving the culture of immigrant communities by encouraging artists within those communities to continue their cultural practices and gives them a platform to showcase their work through programming, concerts and tours.
Raim has worked specifically within the Greek and Macedonian immigrant communities. She pointed out that this sort of work is "dependent on the partnerships and developments with institutes and community centers" since these places have space and money for many projects to be successful.
Jessye Kass '13, the only student on the panel, discussed at length the Attukwei Art Foundation, an organization she co-founded in Ghana. Kass sees her cultural advocacy work through a different lens than the other panelists. Her organization has very specific goals to provide "art therapy programs and a cathartic outlet for children," as opposed to the broader goals of the other groups.
The Attukwei Art Foundation relies on volunteers and workers who come to Ghana and are placed in schools and communities to work with children for a minimum of four weeks. Kass talked at length about her experiences with many children, especially one, Christabell, through whose story she came to believe in the power of art to change and heal.
Finally, the fourth panelist, Zeyba Rahman, director of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music (North America and Asia), talked about the many projects she has been involved in. Describing herself as an individual "working on the cross roads of culture and civil society," she said that, "culture is a resource that society needs to move from today to tomorrow."
The Fes festival, one of the largest of its kind, brings together musicians from all over the world in the city of Fes, in Morocco, for over a week of cultural and musical programming. According to Rahman, this festival was created by another Muslim, a Sufi who was concerned about the polarization of the West and the Muslim world in the 1990s. The festival's goal and concern become even more important after 9/11.
At the end of the presentations, the audience had 15 minutes for questions and discussion, but it felt too short for all the ideas the talk had stirred. However, many questions were asked, such as how to reach out to communities in the U.S. in regards to cultural diplomacy.
I wish the panelists had kept their presentations to less than ten minutes so that the audience could have had a greater chance for discussion. While the presentations were informative and articulated the dilemmas facing cultural advocates, there was little analysis and almost no conversation on how to move forward.