Q1. Have you found this conference effective in providing networking opportunities?

Yes, a little. I have been able to meet some people who are students in the field I work in or are active professionals. I have been able to meet some of the speakers; I would have enjoyed the opportunity to have more interaction with them.

Q2. Can you think of any examples in your country of the government using arts and music for advancing national foreign policy?

On the first day, we have spoken a lot about how the United States do not take an active political role in the promotion of arts and music; there is no Ministry of Culture for example. However, I know that we do have cultural ambassadors, we bring in artists from other countries. This often happens at the White House or at Congress. I cannot say that I know enough about us exporting our own cultural policy.

Q3. Have any panel discussions or speakers stood out to you during the conference?

There were a few. I thought that the documentary shown by Israel film-maker Yael Reuveny was particularly powerful and very relevant. I found her film very touching on a human level and it showed the work of someone who is not a political figure but someone doing work that is meaningful to her. I also really enjoyed the presentation by Mr. Al-Assad from Syria on the work that his organisation does to empower moderate Muslim religious leaders.

Q4. As a result of the global financial crisis, have you witnessed a decrease in governmental support in the arts?

Definitely. I think whenever recession hits, one of the sectors that suffers is the arts and non-profit organisations. As there is almost no public funding for the arts, it is mainly generated by private philanthropy, those people stopped donating right away. Though it is understandable, it is very hard to be working as an artist and using art for political messages. I do not think that the US government is encouraging people to donate money to the arts, rather to reinvest money into the economy.

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1: I would like to know how and if you’ll be able to apply some of the insights and knowledge that you’ve gained from the last few days to your work and your studies?
There’s been some detailed information on projects but for me it is very important to hear what people working in the field that I want to work in later are actually doing and what kind of people they are and how things work in that field.

Q2: We’ve been talking a lot about culture and the arts and globalisation has come up a lot as a topic. In your opinion do you think that globalisation has positively or negatively affected the arts and culture?

I think in the past we didn’t have any globalisation so that’s why we have all this diversity now and I guess we will only see in the future how globalisation actually affects that. Now is a very interesting time because we still have diversity from the past. Now we mix everything together and learn from each other and there are new forms emerging. It might be that it all mixes up into one grey soup, I don’t know but now I think it’s actually a nice and interesting thing to have globalisation.

Q3: Which speaker or which presentation has been the most influential or had the greatest impact on you so far?

I think Dr. Timothy Emlyn Jones because it was the first lecture on visual art and I’m most interested in that. He nicely combined the psychological side of it with visual art and talked about how the creative process is important and it’s not just about the product we see in the museums but that it’s about a whole mindset. That was really interesting to me. I also liked Ambassador Simonyi. He was really interesting because he’s such a good speaker and a really influential person and his perspective was very interesting too.

Thanks for your time Anna and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1:  Would you say that individuals give meaning to art and music?

The process of interpretation and individual perception is important, and certainly an aspect of the esthetic experience.  The creation of that is a whole other issue.  Another thing I was thinking of is the concept of transit and transmission; transit being the physical movement of material objects between cultures, and transmission being the interpretation of it.  The cultural context for this changes, be it a political or intellectual change, can affect the interpretation, even though it hasn’t been moved.

Q2:  Is there a particular perception or point of view that you have held up to now that has perhaps changed with the conference?

Definitely.  This conference really appealed to me, as I am interested in the visual arts and studying anthropology, while trying to align the two.  I’ve been looking at music and film differently now, and I find it exciting how it can cross cultural barriers and be used as a form of discourse, rather than projecting a one-way message – the discourse being a byproduct of this. 

Q3:  Do you consider art in general a political tool, or as political in itself?

Well, I guess that’s difficult to say.  A lot of the times when art is used as a political tool, things like the creation of a personality cult – the use of an esthetic experience to further one’s own agenda, which is sort of the opposite of cultural diplomacy.  I think the most important thing, particularly coming from an anthropological background, there is a history of looking at art as a way to classify other cultures.  When anthropologists examine the process of creating and interpreting art, that is itself somewhat political, as it crosses cultural and national boundaries.  In that sense, it’s political, but in a much more subtle way. 

Thank you for your time!

Q1: Where did you learn about the ICD and this conference in particular?
I found out about the ICD through UCL which is my university in London, and I found out about the conference through the website. One of your coordinators came and did a short speech and so I realised that your institute did a lot of conferences and so I tried to find something which would fit, that I was interested in.

Q2: To what extent do you feel that there’s a real emphasis on music and arts as educational tools in Greece?

What I don’t think people realise about Greece is that there is a lot of cultural activity right now despite the financial crisis. Museums are definitely one of our strong points; I just wish we would use them to project Greece to the rest of the world. People think a lot about Ancient Greece and that is the only cultural identity that they associate with us, but there is a lot of contemporary art and contemporary music and contemporary dance and I think they should pay that a bit more attention I think.

Q3: Do you think that arts and music have changed in Greece as a result of the financial crisis? Have there been visible cuts or are the communities surviving in spite of it all?
They are surviving because they never relied so much on government funding, but it’s true that it’s more difficult for private funding. However, most of the companies that are investing in the art world have not really suffered from the crisis. So it hasn’t affected the funding so much but it is a little bit more restrictive. Has it affected the production in itself? I’m not so sure. Greek music and Greek singing have always had a slight political overtone in some of the lyrics, so that hasn’t changed much.

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1: What are your thoughts on popular culture, particular pop music and film industries and their possible influence on the image of states abroad?
I think they have a pretty strong influence. We know about the influence that Jazz had on the US. Commercial movies in India are often made on educations systems and on various societal reforms, so popular culture does have a big influence.

Q2: Can you identify high and low cultures in India or is that distinction old fashioned?
I won't say they don't exist but it's more old-fashioned. The younger generations don't associate with the high and low cultures as much.

Q3: What challenges do you see India facing in terms of cultural diplomacy in the future?
One word which comes to my mind is Pakistan. It's a huge challenge for us and I believe the solution lies in cultural diplomacy. At the end of the day it's a conflict situation which needs diplomacy.

Q4: How did you learn about this conference and what motivated you to attend?
I heard about this conference in a lot of ways. I am associated with an international organisation and the organisation and the ICD have a collaboration. Presently, I am located in Stockholm so that motivated me as well. I am geographically close by and I also have a strong connection with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1: What brought you here?
I am a Canadian doing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the Royal Holloway University of London. My research subject matter is about the ability of music to draw different segments of culture together through reconciliation and through communicating identity. I am also in that process of trying to question some of the romantic ideas we have about music and its ability to do this.

Q2: As a result of globalization, it seems that there is almost a competitive nature among cultures. In your opinion, do you think that music and the arts are media that can overcome or prevent that kind of competitiveness between cultures? Are they somehow immune to that and can they promote the true understanding that we are looking for?
I think music and art are neutral, completely neutral. And I think that they can absolutely be used for those purposes but they can also be used to reassert those differences, so it is therefore really important to understand them as neutral. If you go into a project with the assumption that in and of themselves (by initiating a project) they are going to communicate things that are going to bring people together, then you may be led down a path that you didn’t expect to go and you may not end up with an effective program in the end. Today, I think we have seen some really good examples of initiatives that really bring together and talk about that integration without the thing that people are afraid of with globalization, which is grey-out and the gradual removing of differences. I think that music and art have a really beautiful way of, when you can dialogue with the other, becoming more than the sum of their parts. It really becomes something that is bigger. But you also have to be really careful in assuming that naturally it will do that.

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1: Do you think that the arts and music have already, or can in the future, help to overcome or cope with your country’s domestic or international problems?

I was born in Montreal and I came here because I am very interested in the different ways that the performing arts in particular can be a bridge between two cultures and promote intercultural dialogue. I came after several experiences in that field through volunteer work. One of them was conducting a workshop based on body language in the Palestine territories, though that was before in 2010. This is my current to focus, but I have experienced such cultural rapprochement with different mediums such as in Brazil where I was teaching art to children youngsters. The reason I said that I was more interested in intercultural dialogue than language was that after that I started to target my interests for international issues through special social forums, fairs and international events. The first one was this one I was talking about and I am aiming to do a similar workshop perhaps now that I am back in Europe, just in this forum I have just heard three people who all had excellent ideas and who are working on similar projects.

Q2: Up until now which has been the most influential or interesting speaker?

There are actually so many. Perhaps not so much in terms of the questions they answered, but the questions they raised. The presentation we just saw    and there is already a peer group in Israel that is tackling the issue of local dialogue in a way that somehow clashes with the idea of how that should be undertaken. They are simply re-enacting the memory of the Holocaust and using their personal experiences whereas other groups I have seen in the Palestinian territories are definitely moving away from this idea of simply being imprisoned in your memory. The others have a lot more practical answers for society. I mean there are so many different experiences. But in terms of the conference, it has been a crash course in all
the answers I have been looking for over the past year.

Q3: You mentioned that you are most interested in the performing arts. Do you see the performing arts at all as political?

I said the ‘performing arts’ but it is a label I would rather avoid. I am simply interested in a kind of aestheticisation of your daily life which can include, for example, attracting attention to the
way we produce art. For instance, I use this idea of body language because it seems that you can stand there and be linked to the world of speech if you want in a kind of pantomime. Performance is often a kind of caricature of human attitudes. Sometimes I feel that the term ‘performance arts’ limits this from my perspective particularly because I come from a dance background and I see visual arts as this parenthesis as clothes and I am more in fact into movement and how it links us.

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1: There’s been a lot of discussion about the use of film in this conference.  Has this changed your opinion on the way in which film is used to address social issues, and to initiate change in society?

I really believe in the power of film – I’m a massive film lover.  In fact, the film that we watched, by Andreas Veiel, was really powerful and also some of the speakers, like Prof. Buttiglione talking about psychoanalysis and transcending cultural boundaries.  Before I came here, I saw an amazing film, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, by Slavoj Žižek, who is a psychoanalyst and a philosopher.  He opens with an amazing line; “There’s nothing natural about human desire.  Cinema teaches us how to desire.”  I think that’s a very powerful message, and it shows us how film can be representative of how people think, and what they want – how their goals get redefined. 

Q2: Has the conference helped you to address any preconceptions you may have had about cultural diplomacy, or the role of arts and music? 

It’s something I believe in very much, and it’s something I’m actually doing as part of my work.  That’s how I found out about this conference; I work in a company that develops world-music audiences, based in the UK.  We’re doing a world-music festival, and one of my projects there is a world musical, which I’ve written.  It’s for an orchestra of about 30 people from around the world, who are playing my songs.  The narrative has a lot of roots in psychoanalysis – it’s about freeing your mind and transcending boundaries.  Being here has resulted in me having a lot more belief in that.  It’s really refreshing for me to see people that are interested in the same thing, and to learn about what they’re doing.  I’ve gotten so many great ideas!  You’ve put a lot of things into focus, and made it more detailed.  Before my beliefs were a bit more open and general, but now there are some particular areas, certain themes that have started emerging.  I would like to find out more about how something like this is put together, because it would be an amazing thing for my company – this is really something Manchester could use!

Q3: This conference has brought people from all over the world together to discuss the unifying power of art and music.  Do you feel that being exposed to so many different backgrounds and viewpoints has made you think more about the world works in general, and how international diplomacy works?

Definitely.  We’ve had academics, artists, and people from various disciplines, but all with an eye towards the arts.  When you get people from different backgrounds, it emphasizes that we are all different, but there are some issues that are human issues, and we’re all concerned with them.  If we can focus on these issues, we can go straight to action on what’s important. 

Q4: So this is an interesting time to have a conference, as we are currently unsure of the future of democracy in areas such as the Middle East – a conference where we talk about the role of diplomacy over belligerence?

Yes, and I would say it is more a matter of realizing what’s happening in these situations.  If there’s a quarrel, it’s not necessarily what they’re saying, but behind what they’re saying.  So I think the violence and negativity we’re addressing is just a byproduct of our own insecurity.  By addressing these human issues, we can combat the insecurity.  If we provide people with a sense of pride and empowerment, we can enable them to appreciate others as well. 

Thank you so much for your time and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1. Is art and music viewed at times as a form of political activism in Finland?

Yes, I think so. They are included in school curricula in education. In that case, it is certainly political. We have many institutions at the state level as well as the municipal level that deal with art and culture.

Q2. Did a particular panel discussion or a speaker stand out to you during the conference?

I liked Mark Donfried’s general introduction to the field of cultural diplomacy at the beginning of the conference.  There have been a lot of talks so it’s hard to remember which ones have stood out, the last speaker always seems the most impressive. I am a historian. I’m not coming from the diplomatic field. I have learnt a lot about this field from the politicians and ex-diplomats speaking at the conference. I think that William Harvey is a very interesting speaker; he expresses himself both through his philanthropic work and through his musi as a violinist. I also liked Ambassador Karl-Erik Norman, the Swedish diplomat, who chaired a panel discussion earlier on in the conference. As an academic, I would like to hear more about academic definitions and recent research about cultural diplomacy during this conference.

Q3. As a result of the financial crisis, have you seen a decline in government support for cultural program within your country?

In some ways, yes, but in some ways, no. I have an impression that they are reducing moment in traditional forms of art. From an academic point of view, classical studies and cultural studies are been neglected in terms of government funding. On the other hand, they are investing in creativity and innovation. Technology is really receiving a lot more money. I fear for the future of Finland and for Europe in general, as our cultural heritage is being lost and not being passed down from generation to generation.

Thanks very much for your time Susanna and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Q1. Do you find that your national culture and values can be positively promoted abroad through arts and music?

I definitely think so. To take a particular American band that is politically active, Greenday, they positively promote American culture to a young audience worldwide through their music and their lyrics.

Q2. Do you think that there is a link within the United States between art, artists and philanthropic work, particularly climate change?

Most music I think is now for change. To find a new thought, a new idea, a new beauty. For the most part, I do not think that it is politically aimed. One of the conference speakers spoke of the importance for an appreciation of the culture and art of our time. You cannot move in a forward direction if you do not know who you are.

Q3. From what you have learned so far about the conference, how important is it for cultures to interact with the danger of cultural imperialism?

It is important for people to be open-minded, respectful and to have a desire to learn about other cultures. That is why a conference like this is important, recognising the value of other people’s culture.

Q4. How important do you think controversial art and music in creating political debate?

I think that it is important to push the boundaries; that is what rock and roll is. Music develops through people being creative and controversial. I also feel that one of the greatest qualities of music is that is a universal language. People from different countries can meet at concerts and be united by the common language of music. Thanks for your time Zachary and enjoy the rest of the conference.