International Festival of Arts & Ideas

New England is filled with old factory buildings and other remnants of our industrial history. This built environment is one of our distinguishing characteristics, but it also provides challenges as our cities grow and adapt. How do we best reuse spaces that contain cultural importance? How do we balance this adaptive conservation with the need for new civic spaces? Join us for a live event NEXT in collaboration with The Cities Project as we travel around our region and learn about how communities are honoring their industrial heritage while looking to the future. This talk features: JOHN DANKOSKY, ELIHU RUBIN, CATHY STANTON, NICO WHEADON, AND JOHN THOMAS

How do we honor this landmark in a struggle that began before the “first brick was thrown” and still continues? How do we tribute the indignation, outrageousness (fabulousness) and complexity of ALL those present 50 years ago – without retroactively endowing them with certainty or cohesion or de-problematizing their differences? An informal talk with award winning playwright Ain Gordon and rural queer/trans organizer HB Lozito.

What does a venture capitalist have in common with a Venetian man brought to life by Shakespeare more than 400 years ago? Our panel features experts in both economics and the Bard drawing parallels between the characters of The Merchant of Venice and the behavior of modern consumers and investors. Participants: Steve Mentz (moderator), Erik Blachford, Tara Bradway, Judith Chevalier, and Holly Dugan.

How do you envisage something that would be altered simply by your own observation of it? Join Quantum Physicist Michel Devoret and Visual Artist Martha W. Lewis to investigate the relationships between art and science, to discuss their collaboration, and the benefits of engaging in multidisciplinary activities. Conversation moderated by Florian Carle.

How was Germany able to transition from the “sick man” of Europe in the 1990s into the political and economic predominance within the European Union it is today? Director of the Yale Program in European Union Studies, David Cameron, looks at what the future holds for Europe.

Curators play a significant role in shaping the visual dialogue of our times, in ways that are often mysterious or obscure in the minds of the museum-going public. Keely Orgeman and Justin Brown will have a conversation delving into the curatorial process, addressing a range of considerations—from logistical to political—involved in the implementation of exhibitions and the interpretation of collections.

MacArthur Fellow and Musical America’s 2018 Educator of the Year, Francisco J. Núñez, is a composer, conductor, visionary, leading figure in music education, and the artistic director/founder of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC), renowned worldwide for its diversity and artistic excellence. Francisco's talk explores his visionary work with YPC, offering a bold new model for music-making that can inspire ensembles all over the country and throughout the world. He will be joined by several members of his ensemble.

When Claudia Rankine was recognized by the MacArthur Foundation in 2016, she used her $625,000 award to build an extraordinary Interdisciplinary Cultural Library to provide a platform for artists and scholars to explore the idea of race. Two curators for The Racial Imaginary Institute—essayist and painter, LeRonn P. Brooks, Ph.D. and renowned poet and lawyer Monica Youn—will lead a discussion of this new model of art curation, collaboration, and its role in lifting voices that are otherwise unheard through galleries and museums.

Chris George, Executive Director of IRIS with a panel of guests lead a lively discussion of refugee resettlement in Connecticut. Where do refugees come from? How are they selected? How can we be sure they are not terrorists? How does the community get involved? How do refugees enrich our country? Why and how is the Trump Administration destroying the refugee program?

Look at our city. What do you see? Who do you see? Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, psychiatrist and founder of the University of Orange, with University of Orange colleagues Molly Rose Kaufman and Aubrey Murdock examine urban divides caused by serial forced displacement and offer new ways of seeing that help to restore the urban ecosystem. Moderated by Kyle Pedersen.