September 26, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Dan Hunter, executive director for the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
“Why aren’t we at the table?”
Cultural leaders across the country hear this question as we recoil from yet another round of budget cuts to arts and cultural programs. We wonder why we aren't we better represented at the table of political decision makers.This seminar discussed how supporters of the arts, humanities, and cultural programs can earn a seat at the "table." Participants learned to navigate the political landscape in 2008 and beyond – as non-profit organizations and as citizens. The workshop addressed the rules governing the political roles of non-profit organizations. And, participants worked together to develop strategies to build a stronger environment for arts and cultural programs to prosper.
Dan Hunter is the executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH), a statewide advocacy and education group. An award-winning playwright, songwriter, and humorist, Hunter also has 17 years experience in politics and arts advocacy, serving as director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and running a successful advertising and political consultancy firm in Des Moines. As director of MAASH, Hunter has successfully campaigned for cultural facilities funding and an increase of 70% in cultural funding during a time when the total state budget increased by only 14%.
October 20, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
John Speck, principle of Real Advertising and New Commons Strategic Partner
Everybody knows Web 2.0 is important. But almost nobody knows what it is. Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as "changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration, and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and its hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies." In other words, Web 2.0 is the concept of fostering greater collaboration and engagement with your audience via the Web. Beyond the definition lies the bigger question: What does this mean for my organization? The short answer is: everything. This workshop put the phenomenon into perspective. What are the dangers? What are the opportunities?
John Speck owns Real Advertising, a marketing consultancy based on the notion that markets are conversations. His work as a New Commons partner primarily involves the application of blogs, wikis, discussion forums, and other Internet technologies to manage information and extend the conversation for New Commons clients, including Providence College and the Division of Statewide Planning. On the Internet, Speck writes under the pseudonym Frymaster. In addition to writing on the New Commons Blog , he publishes The Bucket Blog about Pawtucket, RI.
October 31, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Ron Potvin, assistant director and curator, John Nicholas Brown Center
In conversations around the country, museum professionals and preservationists agree that historic house museums are struggling or dying, have lost their relevance and vitality, and offer an outmoded form of interpretation. How dire is this crisis? How can we move past old paradigms and find new solutions? This workshop examined new research that suggests the dilemma is solvable, though only through deep commitment from the museums themselves. Through brainstorming and problem-solving exercises, participants in this workshop learned new methods and techniques to measure success, connect to modern audiences, and form building blocks to sustainability.
Ron M. Potvin is assistant director and curator of the John Nicholas Brown Center. His twenty-year career in museums includes working with fine and decorative arts, manuscripts, exhibitions, collections management, and historic sites. He serves on the boards of directors of the New England Museum Association and the Curators Committee of the American Association of Museums, and he is a member of the steering committee of the Rhode Island Historic Sites Coalition. As part of the Center’s outreach mission, he works with several local house museums to shape their strategic and interpretive strategies. His recent research includes a statistical examination of historic house museums in New England and methods to connect interpretation with modern culture.
December 4, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Adam Weiss, educational podcaster and podcast consultant
An overview of the art and science of podcasting! This workshop covered the dos and don'ts of the medium, the three main types of podcasts, the audience for podcasting, and the steps you should take before and after sitting down at the microphone. Participants learned the basics of interviewing, the ins and outs of editing, and got a peek at what really goes into making professional radio sound so good. The workshop provided a solid understanding of what podcasts are, why and how you would do one, and what it will take to get started.
Adam Weiss is a successful educational podcaster and podcast consultant. An expert interviewer and communicator, he aims to show that podcasting is more about story, presentation, and technique than fancy gear and tech toys. He is the creator and of the popular Current Science and Technology Podcast for the Museum of Science in Boston, which he hosted for more than two years. He has also created the critically acclaimed Boston Behind the Scenes Podcast, as well as the newly-launched Puzzle Podcast. You can find all of his podcasting and new media work at www.PodcastConsultant.net.
March 19 and June 2, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
Anne M. Valk, historian, oral historian, and associate director for programs, John Nicholas Brown Center
Are you interested in starting an oral history project but unsure about where to begin or how to proceed? This workshop helped participants plan an oral history project; learn to conduct, record, and preserve oral interviews; and create innovative programming using your interviews. The session addressed how to define a project, find people to interview, develop interview topics and questions, record and preserve your interviews, create outreach and programming, and understand legal and ethical protocols. This workshop was geared toward both novice interviewers and experienced professionals explore new ways to use interviews.
Over the past fifteen years, Anne M. Valk has worked extensively on community oral history projects in New England, the Midwest, and the South, examining experiences of immigration, industrialization and deindustrialization, and racial segregation. She has taught oral history classes and workshops for audiences ranging from university classes and museum professionals to volunteer community groups and public school teachers. The workshop will include examples derived from Valk’s own work, as well as information about other exemplary projects that have used oral history as the basis for historical documentation, community theater performances, museum exhibits, and other forms of programming.
Download the PowerPoint presentation for this workshop
"A Thousand Ships" was a night of remembrance – an occasion to celebrate the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, but also a night to acknowledge and mark Rhode Island’s century-long involvement with this trade. Merchants from Rhode Island mounted more than a thousand slaveship voyages on these waters, carrying over 100,000 Africans into New World slavery. One of these ships was called the Providence, and more slaveship voyages sailed from Rhode Island’s harbors than from any other state. "A Thousand Ships" was a night for contemplation and recognition – a ritual observance acknowledging the state's historic involvement with human bondage. A night filled with music and silence, dance and stillness, fire, and water.
The event kicked off the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities' Freedom Festival, a month-long exploration of African-American heritage in Rhode Island. Lyra Monteiro, a student in the public humanities program was one of the event organizers.
October 4, 2008
Waterplace Basin and Memorial Park
Providence, RI
6:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.
October 5, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center, Library
357 Benefit Street
12 – 3 p.m.
October 24 – October 25, 2008
Chace Center Auditorium, Rhode Island School of Design
20 North Main Street Street
Providence, RI
The concept of religious freedom, the bedrock of the Bill of Rights and our protection from tyranny in all its forms, is often taken for granted by Americans. Yet in seventeenth-century New England, many considered religious freedom to be dangerous, even punishable by death. Still, there was one place where religious liberty was the rule, in Roger William's Rhode Island. How did religious freedom thrive in Rhode Island, surrounded by colonies where persecution was common? How much progress have we, as a nation, made in tolerating others' religious beliefs and practices? Government influence in religion; religious influence in government - where is the line? And have we crossed it? What role do sacred sites play in connecting Americans to the history of religion and religious freedom in the U.S.?
This conference featured a keynote address by Thomas Bremer, noted scholar of religious history and author of Blessed with Tourists: The Borderlands of Religion and Tourism in San Antonio. Also featuring a special address by Bix Gabriel from the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience during Friday evening's reception.
November 6, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
5:30 p.m.
Stephanie Yuhl, associate professor of history at Holy Cross and author of A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston
Today Charleston, South Carolina, enjoys a reputation as a destination city for cultural and heritage tourism. In her recent book, A Golden Haze of Memory, Stephanie E. Yuhl looks back to the crucial period between 1920 and 1940, when local leaders developed Charleston's trademark image as "America's Most Historic City."
In this talk, Stephanie Yuhl, associate professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, examined a broad notion of historic preservation as rooted in cultural activities beyond architecture. Looking not only at how traditional preservationists, but also artists and spiritual societies, contribute to historic preservation, Yuhl also considered the problem of historical memory in creating a "historic" city.
December 12, 2008
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
4–6 p.m.
Nick Shepherd, associate professor of African studies at the University of Cape Town and visiting associate professor of archaeology and Africana studies at Brown University
New South African Keywords provides a guide to the key words and concepts that have come to shape public and political thought and debate in South Africa since 1994, as well as offering a compendium of cutting-edge thinking on the new society. The result is a concise and insightful guide to post-apartheid South Africa, valuable to anyone wanting to make sense of South African society today. Co-editor, Nick Shepherd, was on hand to sign copies of the book.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.
February 5, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Cora Marshall, artist, educator, and scholar
New England artist, Cora Marshall, facilitated a workshop on her artistic process. Marshall's mixed media artwork draws from the history and legacy of slavery.
February 5, 2009
Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001
Brown University
5 p.m.
Cora Marshall, artist, educator, and scholar
A keynote lecture by artist Cora Marshall to celebrate the opening of the exhibit Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slavery at the John Nicholas Brown Center. Marshall's mixed media artwork draws from the history and legacy of slavery. Her portraits of slave women, men, and children combine archival documents, in the form of sale and runaway advertisements, to make connections to the past and honor the memory of lives in pursuit of freedom.
April 17, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock, conceptual artists
LIFE~BOAT explores our relationship to and obsession with boats and the sea. The physical aspects of the uncontrolled, often dangerous, bodies of water are ever present as they create the psychological need to overcome nature’s force and to develop survival strategies. This workshop reflected on how the arts create metaphors for longings and projections, where dreams and nightmares fuse into each other and touch social and political topics. The participants encountered elements of familiar places in the most unlikely of territories and discussed cultural conversion in relation to cultural mobility. The encounter of maritime topics and objects created a model of the world in miniature, exposing cultural hybridity in an abstract kind of travel, visualized in a multi-media installation as combined result of the workshop.
April 16, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
4 – 6 p.m.
Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock, conceptual artists
This lecture explored how memory functions in the social sphere and how it is reflected symbolically in the space of the city. Conceptual artists Stih and Schnock discussed how the intrusion of art in public space affects everyday life in memorial projects, including “Places of Remembrance,” “BUS STOP,” and interventions like “Invitation” at Berlin-Alexanderplatz. Collections as containers of memory will be explored, including “Who Needs Art, We Need Potatoes,” “The Art of Collecting - Flick in Berlin,” and, most recently, “The City as Text” and “Show Your Collection.”
"Garlic eater," "fish eater," and "pie eater" are all pejoratives that show how foods converge with identity. Food choices signal values as well – what you eat may suggest you are an adventurer, a gourmet, a slow food enthusiast, or an ethnic food homeboy. In these sessions a discussion of specific comestibles leads to related issues of food, identity and social values.
April 24, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Robert Jisong Ku, visiting associate professor and associate director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Program at SUNY-Binghamton
April 24, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
John Eng-Wong, Brown University
April 24, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Chee-Beng Tan, professor of anthopology at Chinese University of Hong Kong
April 24, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Sidney Cheung, professor of anthopology at Chinese University of Hong Kong; Wei Ying Wong, Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Connecticut College
April 24, 2009
John Nicholas Brown Center
357 Benefit Street
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Evelyn Hu-deHart, professor of history at Brown University
Other events for this series were held on Thursday, April 23, on the Brown University campus and on Saturday, April 25, at Johnson & Wales University. To view a complete schedule of events for this program, visit the blog for Eating Chinese: Comestibles, Cuisine, Commerce and Culture.
May 6, 2009
Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium
Brown University
4 p.m.
Daniel Libeskind, award-winning architect
Daniel Libeskind is an international figure in architectural practice and urban design. With over forty projects worldwide, Libeskind's practice extends from museums and concert halls to convention centers, universities, hotels, shopping centers, and residential projects. In his conversation with Brown Professor Dietrich Neumann, Libeskind discussed his design practice, his architectural philosophy, and some of his most important projects.
This conference on religious freedom is sponsored by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, and the Roger Williams National Memorial.
Stephanie Yuhl will give a lecture on the multiple avenues for cultural preservation and the central role of memory to that process on November 6.
Nick Shepherd will be on hand to sign copies of New South African Keywords on December 12.
Stih and Schnock are conceptual artists who explore how memory functions in the social sphere and how it is reflected symbolically in urban spaces
The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California, is one of the most recent projects of award-winning architect Daniel Libeskind