Special discounted rate for the cultural and academic communities: $ 75.
A special discounted rate for students is also available: $ 50.
Free admission for the first 20 students to contact.
Please call to register: +49-351-49 14 583 or +1-917-815-3791
e-mail: sophie.heldmann@skd.smwk.sachsen.de

Entitled Strategies for the Future of Culture: Dresden in Global Context, this major conference takes place in a city celebrated for its historic architecture and home to the Church of Our Lady, to be reconsecrated on October 30, 2005 following one of the major restoration projects of our era. Drawing from and celebrating Dresden, this conference will examine how cultural creation, display, and preservation will evolve in the 21st century.

Overarching themes include the impact of terrorism, increasing urbanism, political instability, and ecological disasters on cultural institutions and on the creation of new artistic works in all fields and media. Equal scrutiny will be given to legal issues: preventing looting; legal ownership of objects or sites versus the notion of stewardship; and the inevitable legal ramifications and effects on cultural heritage of the increased cost of protecting cultural property.

Speakers will address issues related to the presentation of the arts to a diverse public, the preservation of objects, sites, and other forms of cultural expression for future generations, and, in both general and specific senses, the future of culture and the creation of art. Particular attention will be paid to the sensitivities involved in different approaches to the preservation and display of cultural and artistic works, and to the complex relationship between presentation and audience reaction. Last, mindful of the unequal distribution of resources for the creation, perpetuation and preservation of the arts, we will also consider the development of sustainable solutions to this challenging problem.

Among those who have agreed to participate: contemporary painter, Ross Bleckner whose work employs visual metaphors to address memory and history; Neil Brodie, who heads the Illicit Antiquities Research Center at Cambridge University's McDonald Institute; the attorney Lawrence Kaye, who has argued regarding cultural repatriation and antiquities before the U.S. Supreme Court; Constance Lowenthal, former Director, Commission for Art Recovery, World Jewish Congress (1998 – 2001) and Executive Director, International Foundation for Art Research [IFAR] (1985 – 1998); architect Richard Gluckman, whose commissions include the Guggenheim in Berlin; Peter Kulka, architect; his work includes German Horticultural Museum, Erfurt (2000); restoring the former University Tower, Leipzig-Zentrum; and the Hygiene Museum, Dresden; Brian Michael Jenkins, who is Senior Advisor to the President of RAND; Paul LeClerc, President, The New York Public Library; filmmaker and three-time Academy award Mark Jonathan Harris; Gilles Peress, photographer and a member of Magnum Photos whose photographs are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale; Godfrey Reggio, who produced and directed the Qatsi series of films (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi) with music by Philip Glass; Mervin Richard, Deputy Head of Conservation, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Martin Roth, Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections; John Malcolm Russell, Chairman of the Critical Studies Department, a professor of art history at the Massachusetts College of Art and a member of the UNESCO cultural mission to Iraq in May 2003, and, until June 2004, Deputy Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Culture for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; Dorit Straus, vice president and Worldwide Fine Art Specialty Manager, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies where she is responsible for fine art strategy and underwriting; Christoph Martin Vogtherr, curator of French and Italian paintings, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg / Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam (Germany); and John Sanday, one of the leading conservation architects in Asia who serves as Field Director for The Upper Mustang Cultural Heritage Conservation Project and for the Preah Khan Conservation Project in Angkor, Cambodia, and as project adviser to Chinese authorities and the China Heritage Fund regarding reconstruction of the Western Garden Complex in the Imperial Palace, Beijing.

We are honored to thank the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden for their invitation, gracious support, and invaluable advice and counsel.

We gratefully recognize The Exeter Group as the American Leadership Supporter.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of ArtReview, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, College Art Association, Herrick, Feinstein LLP, Paula K. Lazrus, Errol Morris, the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, The Cultural Department of the City of Dresden, and Luke Welles.