The Next Fifty Announces Arts & Social Change Symposium, 10/12-13

Key arts and civil rights agencies in Seattle, King County and Washington State will join forces to present Arts & Social Change, a regional symposium, Oct. 12 and 13, at Seattle Center. The event addresses the role that the arts can play in creating awareness, inspiring understanding and developing policies to addess social change.

Arts and cultural administrators, artists, civil rights and social service professionals, local government staffs, and community leaders are invited to participate. National speakers will present three probing plenary sessions, including Dr. Manuel Pastor of University of Southern California addressing Changing Demographics and the Arts in the West, Hmong actor/comedian Tou Ger Xiong from Minneapolis, and Donna Walker-Kuhne, a New York consultant addressing strategies and methods to engage diverse communities as participants for arts and culture.

In addition to the plenary sessions, the symposium will also feature panels, workshops, engagement activities and artists performing or exhibiting artwork that speaks to how art can be used as a vehicle for social change. The artwork will be located in a temporary exhibit space in the Northwest Rooms, and will be open to symposium attendees and the general public.

The symposium takes place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus an evening event from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 13. in the Northwest Rooms at Seattle Center and Seattle Center Playhouse. General registration of $100 closes at midnight tonight, but some walk-in registrations will be accepted based on availability. The general public may also purchase $15 tickets to attend the Oct. 12 performance Tou Ger Xiong. For information and registration, visit http://www.artsandsocialchange.org/index.html.

The symposium is an interagency effort among Washington State Arts Commission/The Wallace Foundation, 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Seattle Center and Festál, Seattle Office for Civil Rights, and The Association of American Cultures, a national arts advocacy organization. The Boeing Company is also sponsoring the event.