Cultural Agents Initiative Newsletter - Week of May 11, 2010

Cultural Agents and Creative Arts

When youth engage in creative arts, they experience the possibilities of exercising the power of their own expression, thoughts and emotions. The goal of this webinar is to inspire practitioners, advocates, policy makers and researchers interested in youth development through exemplary cases of art that have stimulated positive change. The examples will demonstrate novel scholarly and artistic approaches to nonviolent social change, with the belief that creativity is vital to the development of ethical, socially engaged, and resourceful youth and citizens.

Based on "Cultural Agents and Creative Arts," the newly released issue of New Directions for Youth Development edited by Doris Sommer and Andrés Sanín, this action dialogue will address the following topics:
What are the elements of productive artistic youth programs and activities?
What are the civic benefits of youth arts, locally, nationally and internationally?
Where to start--how can one network, incubate ideas and programs, and grow existing practices?

Registration is free but mandatory. Registration is limited, so register today by clicking here. Our most recent webinars have filled up quickly, so please do not delay in registering. Please be sure to attend the webinar once you register. If you absolutely cannot attend, please share your registration with a colleague, or be sure to inform us so we can make room for another participant.

Please note that the date for this webinar has been changed from May 19 to May 26, 2010.

Doris Sommer is the Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University; she is also director of the Cultural Agents Initiative.

José Luis Falconiis Curator of the Art Forum Program for Latino and Latin American Art at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Associate Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative, both at Harvard University.

Liz Gruenfeld is an Education Consultant working at the intersection of arts education and post-conflict education in Latin America, the Middle East & North Africa.

Carlo Tognatois Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and at the Center for Social Studies of the National University of Colombia, Bogota. He is also Co-Director of the Bogota Center for Cultural Agents and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.

Gil G. Noam (moderator) is the Founder and Director of the Program in Education, Afterschool & Resiliency (PEAR) and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. Gil is the editor-in-chief of New Directions for Youth Development.

Panel presentations with PowerPoint, audible and visible over the Internet. Panel discussion audible. Audience participation via e-mail. To see an example of the format, go to www.pearweb.org/webinars/.

Miss a webinar? All of our webinars are available to view in our online webinar archive, www.pearweb.org/webinars/, just click on the "archive" tab.

Contact Erin Cooney at ecooney@mclean.harvard.edu with any questions.

The action dialogue is jointly hosted by PEAR, at McLean Hospital and Harvard University, and the University of Minnesota Extension. It is supported by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley Publishers. New Directions for Youth Development is a publication of PEAR and Jossey-Bass Publishers.

For information on purchasing the journal New Directions for Youth Development, please visit www.pearweb.org/ndyd/