20,000 Dialogues

20,000 Dialogues is a nationwide campaign to bring people of different faiths together using films about Muslims to stimulate discussion and promote understanding. It brings the concept of interfaith dialogue into the hands of ordinary people who want to make a positive difference. 20,000 Dialogues is a Unity Production Foundation (UPF) project in cooperation with Connecting Cultures, LLC.

Resource Link: http://www.20000dialogues.org

7 Stages

7 STAGES produces theatre that focuses on the social, political, and spiritual values of contemporary culture. Their Survivor Project, for instance, utilized the power of theatre and the momentum of the 1996 Summer Olympics to bring attention to war torn countries and the issue of survival as an every-day issue. Artists and companies from the Balkan states were invited to Atlanta for a series of performances, dialogues, and interaction with American artists.

Resource Link: http://7stages.org

Abundance Project

Abundance is a community arts performance project about money as told through the stories of people in the United States. Culminating in an Off-Broadway production in the Spring of 2003, Abundance is written and directed by Marty Pottenger and produced by The Working Theatre. After a month-run in NYC, Abundance will tour the United States. A film about money will include excerpts from the project and the theater production, as well as cartoon and documentary footage.

Resource Link: http://abundanceproject.net

Active Voice

Active Voice is a nonprofit, fee-based service provider whose work is an outgrowth of promising practices developed by the Television Race Initiative (TRI). Active Voice creates campaigns based on powerful issue-driven films. AV campaigns encourage individuals and community groups to probe, discuss and take action on timely and relevant social justice issues. In collaboration with a wide range of partners, Active Voice creates companion materials and trains facilitators in how to use the films as catalysts for civic engagement, volunteerism and coalition building.

Resource Link: http://www.activevoice.net

Albany Park Theater Project

The Albany Park Theater Project utilizes the medium of theater to help teenagers recognize and achieve their potential, with an emphasis on nurturing their educational ambitions and sense of civic responsibility.

Resource Link: http://aptpchicago.org

Alchemy Consulting LLC

We are process experts who help teams around the world unleash their creativity to solve today's complex business issues. Alchemy gives you a system that works -- graphic recording, strategic illustration, process innovation, organizational strategy, leadership development -- leading you and your business to sustainable success. The Alchemy team, which provided their top-knotch graphic recording services at the 2004 NCDD conference in Denver, consists of Chris Chopyak, Patti Dobrowolski and Lois Todd.

Resource Link: http://link2alchemy.com

Alexander & Associates

Betty Alexander brings sixteen years of experience to her work in large system change and leadership development for public and private organizations. As a graphic facilitator, she uses her skills in deep listening, information synthesis, and intuitive visual processing to make group conversation visible. The real-time visual record of a meeting that she creates is designed to optimize group learning and productivity. It illuminates collective wisdom, creates understanding between multiple, contradictory and complex data, acknowledges individual contribution by reflecting what is being voiced by each person, and builds commitment through high participation in meeting processes.

American Composers Orchestra

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is dedicated to the creation, performance and preservation of music by American composers. Their project, Coming to America: Immigrant Sounds/Immigrant Voices, for instance, linked the symphonic work of immigrant composers to issues of immigration and American identity. Dialogue was used during pre and post-concert talks, in-school activities, and presentations within partner institutions.

Resource Link: http://americancomposers.org

American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. builds new audiences, educates viewers, and fosters sustained public discourse and activity around the contemporary social issues raised by P.O.V. (Point of View) documentary programming. Their film Girls Like Us, for example, used broadcast media to encourage adults to become aware of the issues affecting the young women in their lives.

Resource Link: http://amdoc.org

American Repertory Theater

Located at Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) is the Boston area's Tony-award winning professional theater. One of ART's performances, called Children of Herakles, was designed to build people's awareness of the immigration issues that refugees face. Elements of the performance included live testimonials by refugees. Panels on refugee issues were held, as well as pre- and post-performance discussions.

Resource Link: http://amrep.org

Animating Democracy Initiative

Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, fosters arts and cultural activity that encourages and enhances civic engagement and dialogue. It is based on the premise that democracy is animated when an informed public is engaged in the issues affecting people's daily lives. Launched in fall 1999, ADI is a four-year programmatic initiative of Americans for the Arts which fosters artistic activity that encourages civic dialogue on important contemporary issues.

Resource Link: http://www.artsusa.org/animatingdemocracy

Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force in Civic Dialogue

Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Cheryl Yuen and Pam Korza, Animating Democracy Initiative of Americans for the Arts. Americans for the Arts, 1999.

This report reveals pivotal and innovating roles that the arts can play in the renewal of civic dialogue as well as challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations as they engage in this work.

Resource Link: http://www.artsusa.org/animatingdemocracy

Anna Scheleit, Artist

Anna Scheleit's public art piece "The State Hospital: In Memoriam" promoted civic dialogue about the mental health system in America through Habeas Corpus, a one time site-specific sound installation of J.S. Bach's Magnificat, making the abandoned building "sing in memory of the thousands of individuals whose lives were affected by the institution."

Resource Link: http://www.1856.org

Art, Dialogue, Action, Activism: Case Studies from Animating Democracy

Americans for the Arts' Animating Democracy Initiative, 2005.

This 114-page book opens with an essay by Detroit-based activist, cultural worker, and nonagenarian, Grace Lee Boggs. The book?’s case studies feature projects by the Council for the Arts of Greater Lima and Sojourn Theatre on longstanding issues of race and trust among city and county leaders, Los Angeles Poverty Department on the advent of crack in the United States and drug policy reform, The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on engaging disenfranchised people in dialogue and action on current issues of cultural equity and democracy, and Out North Contemporary Art House on the role of same-sex couples in society.

Resource Link: http://americans4thearts.stores.yahoo.net/noname.html

Bigger Picture

Bigger Picture is a consulting company based in Scandinavia. We provide visual learning and dialogue tools and consulting services enabling ongoing sustainable organizational and personal change. We are a network of consultants, facilitators and illustrators joining forces to create learning designs and processes with visual support.

Resource Link: http://www.biggerpicture.dk

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is a multicultural company committed to performing innovative, collaborative works of dance-theater. The Company has distinguished itself through its teaching and performing in various universities, festivals and under the aegis of government agencies such as the US Information Agency (in Eastern Europe, Asia and South East Asia). Audiences of approximately 50,000 to 100,000 annually see the Company across the country and around the world.

Resource Link: http://www.billtjones.org

Brandy Agerbeck and Loosetooth.com

Brandy Agerbeck has mapped conversations in many industries: biotechnology, consulting, education, financial, food, insurance, medical, pharmaceutical, retail, technology, transportation, and utilities. She has graphically facilitated groups from 2 to 200 people, working with start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies. Agerbeck is skilled in both hand drawing and computer illustration. Agerbeck has worked in front of thousands of people since 1996, and has a B.A. from Grinnell College in Studio Art.

Resource Link: http://www.loosetooth.com/Viscom/gf.htm

Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra

The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra's Klinghoffer Dialogue Project used opera to engage the people of Brooklyn in dialogue on the effects of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians on their community.

Resource Link: http://www.brooklynphilharmonic.org

Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center

The Cambridge Multicultural Art Center (CMAC) is a non-profit corporation founded in 1978 as an arts center focused on helping diverse populations better understand one another. Our mission is to present visual and performing arts programs to educate the community about diversity, and make our facility available to artists or groups that might not otherwise have access to a professionally equipped facility or the cultural mainstream.

Resource Link: http://www.cmacusa.org

CEC Artslink

CEC ArtsLink is an international arts service organization. Our programs support exchange of artists and cultural managers in the United States with their counterparts in Central Europe, Russia and Eurasia.

Resource Link: http://www.cecartslink.org