Foreign policy is too important to leave to the “professionals.” Through art and culture, we can all work to make the world a better place.
The Art of Dissidence and Diplomacy
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Art
I’m Digging Up Dirt in 193 Countries. Here’s Why.
I’m collecting soil samples from every country in the world. Call it an effort to find common ground (literally).
Korean Americans Are Reclaiming Their History Through Culture
Until recently, Korean Americans were all but written out of the U.S. history of the Korean War. A rising group of artists, oral historians, and community members is writing them back in.
25 Years of German Unity: Totalitarianism, Freedom, and the Arts
German-American artist Stefan Roloff explores the impacts of totalitarianism — from Nazism to communism and beyond — on the generations that come after it.
Dubai’s Skyline Is a Monument to Oppression, Not Prosperity
Visual artist Arko Datto combines satellite images and text to paint a picture of migrant workers’ lives in the Arabian Peninsula — and his findings aren’t pretty.
Art and Activism at the Global Intersections: A Dialogue with Shailja Patel
A conversation with poet-activist Shailja Patel about art, identity, and Kenya’s ICC Witness Project.
Wang Ping and the Kinship of Rivers
An interview with Wang Ping, a poet and activist working to build a sense of kinship between the peoples of the Yangtze and Mississippi River valleys.
Art and the Arab Awakening
The visual landscape of the Arab World has changed greatly as various forms of creative expression have flourished in the days since the Arab Spring. Graffiti and street art not only played a distinct role in the political dissent of this revolutionary period. Art has also been an ongoing experience for the revolutionary youth that is strengthening civil society and the democratic process.
Shedding Light on Immigration
Huong, a Vietnamese-American artist and activist, seeks to capture the magnitude of America’s immigration debate in her latest mural project, “Immigration – The Wall of Borders.” In a recent visit to FPIF, Huong was keen to emphasize the scale of the mural: eight feet high and over 200 feet long, with a planned expansion to some 400 feet by the time the mural is unveiled in Miami in January 2012.
A New Experiment in Open-Source Citizenship
Not long ago I received in the mail a slender envelope with international postage on the front. Inside was a small card-paper placard bearing my name, handwritten, confirming my citizenship in what is apparently the world’s newest nation – neither South Sudan nor Kosovo, of course, nor even a nascent Palestine, but rather nowhereisland. This decidedly more postmaterialist undertaking is the brainchild of British artist Alex Hartley.