The Power of Art to Promote Intercultural Understanding

Art is powerful—it offers the potential to delight, inspire, and educate and also to confuse and even repulse. It can open us up or close us down. In other words, art is a perfect platform for cultural exploration and for developing self-awareness and skill-building in intercultural communication. Fanchon Silberstein, author of Art inSight: Understanding Art and Why It Matters, will explain where art's power comes from and how interculturalists can use it creatively to build observation skills that are critical for success in multicultural environments.

Fanchon applies intercultural theories and methods to open-hearted dialogues that foster insight into oneself and into the worlds of others. She encourages us to collaborate with artists, to discover what Marcel Proust reminds us are views of the universe which are not the same as ours and would otherwise remain unknown were it not for art.  In this webinar we will engage in activities selected to illustrate how art can be used to promote intercultural understanding.

Registration = FREE for current SIETAR USA members in good standing

Registration = $25.00 for nonmembers

About the Presenter

Fanchon Silberstein is a writer, teacher and trainer who has presented art and culture workshops around the world. After living and working abroad in Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and Brazil, she became Director of the U. S. State Department’s Overseas Briefing Center and joined the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon. At the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum, where she served as a docent for over thirty years, she taught observation skills to students of conflict resolution.