Bridging The Divide Between The United States And The Muslim World Through Arts And Ideas: Possibilities And Limitations

Appendix I: Conference Program

Friday, June 5, 2009

20:00

Muslim Voices opening: Youssou N’Dour concert at Brooklyn Academy of Music

21:45

Muslim Voices opening: reception

Saturday, June 6, 2009

9:30–10:30 Opening Session

9:30–9:45 Welcome

9:30–9:35 Mustapha Tlili, Founder and Director, Center for Dialogues: Islamic World–U.S.–The West, New York University

9:35–9:40 Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, Brooklyn Academy of Music

9:40–9:45 Vishakha Desai, President, Asia Society

9:45–10:15 Opening Statement Mustapha Tlili Conference Chairman

10:45–12:30

Session I: World of the Artist — Landscapes of Creativity and Art in Question

This session examines the individual and collective life experiences of artists, whether writers, musicians, dancers, or visual artists. It asks: How do artists fit into Muslim world societies, both in the past and today? What socio–economic position do they occupy, and what moral space do they inhabit? It also looks at how “art” has been defined in different places and times, questioning the meaning of distinctions such as “art” versus “craft,” and considering how performance intended as religious ritual differs from that aimed at a public audience.

10:45–10:50

Moderator: Samina Quraeshi, Gardner Fellow and Visiting Artist, Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, U.S.A. / Pakistan

10:50–11:00

How do Muslim artists fit into cosmopolitan cultural environments?

This question considers the complex, multi–layered cultural contexts in which many people — including Muslim artists — live today. How do they negotiate the cultures in which they live, and with which they interact in their professional and private lives?

Speaker: Huzir Sulaiman, dramatist, Malaysia

11:00–11:10

What are the implications of how artists are defined in the Muslim world?

In many parts of the world, artists have historically been somewhat marginal figures. How are artists defined in various parts of today’s Muslim world, and how are those definitions impacted by access to professional training, degrees of religiosity, and exposure to outside notions of arts and artisanal crafts?

Speaker: Anthony Shay, Assistant Professor of Dance and Cultural Studies, Pomona College, U.S.A.

11:10–11:20

Case study: An artist’s experience

What led this artist to take up his particular art form? What training or education did he have? How does he define himself as an “artist,” and what does the term mean to his family and friends? With what cultural and artistic traditions does he affiliate, and how does this impact his art?

Speaker: Mourad Sakli, musicologist, composer, Director, Centre des Musiques Arabes et Méditerranéennes, Tunisia

11:20–11:30

Discussant: Joni Cherbo, Executive Director of the Resource Center for Cultural Engagement, U.S.A.

11:30–12:30 Floor discussion

12:30–14:00

Lunch for participants with keynote remarks by Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, Brooklyn Academy of Music

14:15–16:00

Session II: World of the Artist — Venues and Institutions

This session asks: Where does art happen, and what impact does location have on both the art and its reception? It looks at the places where art is produced and displayed, considering the venues and institutions that mediate and regulate the artist’s access to audiences. It examines the role that government ministries, museums, and privately owned galleries all play vis–à–vis the artist, and how this in turn affects the content that reaches audiences (what art is shown or performed) and the impact that it has (how venues influence audience response).

14:15–14:20

Moderator: Vishakha Desai, President, Asia Society, U.S.A.

14:20–14:30

Where does art happen in the Muslim world today?

In what types of spaces — private, public, and commercial — are different types of art created, produced, and displayed? What impact does the type of space have on artists and the art they produce?

Speaker: Bruce Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Islamic Studies Center, Duke University, U.S.A.

14:30–14:40

Mediating and regulating artists’ access to audiences: galleries, schools of art, museums, government ministries, markets, festivals, and other cultural institutions (locally, nationally, and internationally).

Through what venues do artists reach audiences, domestically and internationally? What factors impact artists’ ability to reach audiences, and what impact does mediation have on the types of art produced and viewed?

Speaker: Theodore Levin, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Department of Music, Dartmouth College, U.S.A.

14:40–14:50

Case study: An experience

What kinds of art does this person handle? In what kind of institution does she work? What kinds of experiences has she had in presenting art and artists to particular audiences?

Speaker: Sabiha al–Khemir, writer and former Director, Museum of Islamic Arts, Doha, Qatar, U.K. / Tunisia

14:50–15:00

Discussant: Jon Anderson, Chair, Anthropology Department, Catholic University, U.S.A.

15:00–16:00 Floor discussion

16:00–16:30

Coffee break

16:30–18:15

Session III: Art and Social Commentary — Transcendence and Transformation

This panel looks at the possibility for artistic production to act as a means of achieving spiritual elevation for artists and audiences. It considers how Qur’anic chanting, religiously focused music, calligraphy, and arabesque design can bring about feelings of transcendence and experiences of interior transformation, for individuals or for groups of people. It asks whether this is, or should be, a primary role of art, particularly in a religious or devotional context, and it considers what parameters religious practices set on particular art forms.

16:30–16:35

Moderator: Dale Eickelman, Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations, Dartmouth College, U.S.A.

16:35–16:45

How do spiritual elements influence some Muslim artistic expressions?

What role does religious faith play in some artists’ approach to their work? How do spiritual elements influence how some artistic expressions are produced, in what venues they are exhibited, and how they are received by audiences?

Speaker: Faouzi Skali, Director, Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, Morocco

16:45–16:55

What boundaries do religious practices put on particular art forms?

What cultural expectations are established for those art forms seen as more closely connected to religious practices, like calligraphy or dhikr? What borders are drawn around those — like dance or pop music — seen as less connected or at odds with religious practices?

Speaker: Isaac Solotaroff, documentary filmmaker, U.S.A.

16:55–17:05

Case study: Artist’s experience — writing

How does this artist mediate the cultural or religious boundaries established for his particular art form? What impact does location have: how do particular venues influence audiences’ expectations of his art’s relationship to religious practices?

Speaker: Mahmoud Hussein, author of Penser le Coran, France/Egypt

17:05–17:15

Discussant: Philip Schuyler, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Washington, U.S.A.

17:15–18:15 Floor discussion

20:00 Sufi Music Ensembles concert at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Sunday, June 7

9:00–10:45

Session IV: Art and Social Commentary — Fusion and Satire

This session considers art as a means of linking cultures and traditions, producing rich combinations that blend the local and the global. It looks at examples drawn from Sufi poetry, storytelling, spoken word/hip hop, and the migration of literary, musical, and theatrical genres across cultural boundaries. It also examines art’s capacity to serve as a vehicle for commenting on politics and social mores, considering art’s capacity for satire as rooted historically in traditions of poetry and prose, karagöz theater, jokes and caricature, and “wise fool” figures like Nasr al–Din.

9:00–9:05

Moderator: Bruce Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Islamic Studies Center, Duke University, U.S.A.

9:05–9:15

Cultures, traditions, the local, the global, fusion and combination in Muslim artistic experiences today

How do the many and sometimes conflicting cultural traditions interact and meld in different Muslim artistic expressions today? How do juxtapositions of local and global influence artists?

Speaker: Sulayman al–Bassam, Writer and Director, Sabab Theater, Kuwait/U.K.

9:15–9:25

What impact can art have as an oppositional tool?

How does art introduce space for political and social commentary in some Muslim societies? What effect does oppositional art have on audiences? What social responsibility does art have, and what are its limits?

Speaker: Hamid Ismailov, novelist and Head of BBC Central Asian Service, U.K. / Uzbekistan

9:25–9:35

Case study: Film and hip hop

What social commentary does this artist’s art offer? How does she balance the aesthetic demands of art with the call to social responsibility? How does this impact audience reception and access to venues for display and distribution?

Speaker: Neda Sarmast, documentary filmmaker, U.S.A. / Iran

9:35–9:45

Discussant: Richard Bulliet, Professor of History, Columbia University, U.S.A.

9:45–10:45 Floor discussion 10:45–11:00 Coffee break for participants

11:00–12:45

Session V: Cultural Exchange — Cultural Capital

This session considers the role of cultural capital, defined as official and non–official art generated through multiple disciplines, at “folk” and “high” levels, in promoting mutual understanding. It looks at the role patrons (public and private, religious and secular) and individual artists play in generating cultural capital and making it available for exchange. At the same time, it recognizes that exchanges of cultural capital often occur asymmetrically, with cultural products flowing primarily from more powerful countries to less powerful ones; and it notes that commercial sector activities such as advertising, filmmaking, recording, and broadcasting facilitate exchanges that occur largely outside government control. It asks in what way cultural capital can be harnessed to provide a context for engagement that supports dialogue and the creation of substantive, positive relationships among global populations.

11:00–11:05 Moderator: Farhan Nizami, Director, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, U.K. / India

11:05–11:15

How can art and cultural capital promote mutual understanding among Muslim and non–Muslim individuals, communities, and nation–states?

What are some examples of ways in which arts and culture have helped bridge divides between Muslim and non– Muslim communities at the local, regional, and national levels — and how might they serve as models going forward?

Speaker: Zarqa Nawaz, Executive Producer, FUNdamentalist Films, Canada / Pakistan

11:15–11:25

Cultural Exchanges and the Power Equation

How do the real inequalities of power and money impact the flow of cultural exchanges? What are the consequences of today’s unequal distribution of cultural capital, and how might this be managed more equitably?

Speaker: Tahar ben Jelloun, poet and writer and Prix Goncourt winner, Morocco/ France

11:25–11:35

Case study: The role of cultural capital and managing the power equation in cultural exchanges

How has the NEA’s experience, with a government– to–government partnership focused on producing poetry anthologies with American and Pakistani poets, engaged cultural capital as a means of exchange? What issues relating to power and politics, as well as logistics and funding, have arisen, and how has the NEA addressed them? What follow–up efforts are envisioned, and what recommendations for other organizations interested in similar initiatives can be offered?

Speaker: Pennie Ojeda, Director, International Activities, National Endowment for the Arts, U.S.A.

11:35–11:45

Discussant: Rachel Cooper, Director of Cultural Programs and Performing Arts, Asia Society, U.S.A.

11:45–12:45 Floor discussion

12:45–14:15

Lunch for participants with keynote remarks by Iqbal Riza, Under–Secretary General and Special Adviser for the Alliance of Civilizations to the Secretary General of the United Nations

14:15–16:00

Session VI: Re–envisioning U.S. Cultural Diplomacy

This session looks at the value of cultural diplomacy — the exchange of art, ideas, information, and other aspects of culture through official channels — as a means of advancing understanding and achieving national objectives. It considers the role of the state and of the private sector — commercial and non–profit — in facilitating exchanges that range from large–scale exhibitions, conferences, and festivals to workshops, individual residencies, and fellowships; and it looks at the degree to which the private sector can and should be mobilized to help realize diplomatic goals. It asks what practical steps can be taken by institutions involved in cultural exchanges to maximize their ability to meaningfully promote mutual understanding on a personal as well as state level.

14:15–14:20

Moderator: Stephen Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, U.S.A.

14:20–14:40 Next Steps: Encouraging Cultural Exchanges What role should the public and private sectors play in facilitating exchanges that range from large–scale exhibitions, conferences, and festivals to workshops, collaboration, individual residencies, and fellowships?

Speaker: Frank Hodsoll, Chair, Center for Arts and Culture, George Mason University, U.S.A.

14:40–14:50

Next Steps: Examining Other Models of Cultural Diplomacy

How can public– and private–sector institutions involved in cultural exchanges maximize their ability to meaningfully promote mutual understanding on a person–to–person as well as state level?

Speaker: William Luers, Former Chairman, United Nations Association of the United States, U.S.A.

14:50–15:00

Next Steps: Enacting the Principle of Mutual Respect through Cultural Exchange

What approaches can cultural institutions take that employ cultural exchanges to foster mutual respect? What new paradigms or best practices are emerging for cultural institutions, and what particular contributions can they make to cultural diplomacy?

Speaker: Anne Imelda Radice, Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services, U.S.A.

15:00–15:10 Case Study: The experience of the British Council

Speaker: Sharon Memis, Director, British Council U.S.A., U.K.

15:10–15:20

Discussant: Margaret Ayers, President, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, U.S.A.

15:20–16:15 Floor discussion

16:15–17:00

Closing session

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