Creative Renewal: How Art Can Save Us Now - A Dialogue with Arlene Goldbard
If you ever wondered how the arts are changing people’s lives around the globe, ICASC invites you to step into conversation with luminary Arlene Goldbard, one of the world's leading writers in the field of art for social change. Hosted by Judith Marcuse, this free presentation and dialogue will enrich and energize, inform and engage you with the diverse and burgeoning world of art for social change/art in community.
Free Event – online RSVP required by October 16th, 2009
Creative Renewal: How Art Can Save Us Now. Economies, governments, communities, families, individuals—all of us are struggling for a foothold as social and economic foundations shift beneath us. Seismic social movement can be frightening, reminding us how little it is possible to control the future. But it can also be exciting, because in times of heightened uncertainty, real and significant change is possible. One urgently needed change concerns our thinking about culture, the crucible of our resilience, wisdom and creativity. It needs to move from the margins—arts work as a nice but not necessary frill—to the center of our public discourse about how to build humane and open societies. The old ways of entering communities, exploring issues and envisaging the future just don't work anymore, because they fail to engage the whole person. The times demand all our skill and creativity, challenging us to make everything we do simultaneously powerful and effective as art, as spiritual practice and as political action. What can we as individuals and organizations do to embody this new truth and bring it to the forefront? What can you do?
ABOUT ARLENE GOLDBARD
Arlene Goldbard is a writer, speaker and consultant whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics and spirituality. Her blog and other writings may be downloaded from her website. She was born in New York and grew up near San Francisco. Her most recent book, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development was published by New Village Press in November 2006. She is also co-author of Community, Culture and Globalization, an international anthology published by the Rockefeller Foundation and Clarity, a novel. Her essays have been published in In Motion Magazine, Art in America, Theatre, Tikkun, and many other journals. She has addressed many academic and community audiences in the U.S. and Europe, on topics ranging from the ethics of community arts practice to the development of integral organizations. She has provided advice and counsel to hundreds of community-based organizations, independent media groups, and public and private funders and policymakers including the Rockefeller Foundation, Global Kids, the Independent Television Service, Appalshop and dozens of others. She is currently focusing on three projects: a book about artists working to heal the prison-industrial complex; a film about Rabbi Arthur Waskow; and a campaign to create Cultural Recovery for the U.S., including a “new WPA” for artists. She serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Shalom Center.
This event is proudly presented by the International Centre of Art for Social Change, with assistance from the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.
