From the Deputy Director

The Artist as Cultural Diplomat
by Joan Channick

With the United States' reentry into UNESCO after a 19-year absence and a leadership transition at the Department of State, we are poised for a much-needed reinvigoration and rethinking of American cultural diplomacy efforts.

At her first "town hall meeting" with her staff, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first remark was: "The lesson of the day is to be good to your interns—you never know what's going to happen. I was, indeed, here.as an intern in 1977 in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I worked on arts programming. It was a great experience." In all the discussion that followed, there was no further mention of the arts, other than a joking reference to Rice's early training as a pianist and her realization that she might have the talent for a piano bar but not for Carnegie Hall.

Secretary Rice then went on to talk about the State Department's role "in promoting the interests and values of the United States at this extraordinary time." She characterized the government's efforts as "transformational diplomacy." "[W]e have to be doers," she said. "What we're really doing in our diplomacy is we're partnering with people in other countries to give them capacity to move toward democracy or to move toward prosperity...partnering with people to make their lives better.... [I]t's a great time, because when you're in a period in which many, many countries around the world are trying to shed old habits and learn new ways of doing things...they look to the United States and to other countries to help them make that transformation."

Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, appointed a cultural diplomacy advisory committee, whose report is due in September 2005. The committee "is responsible for advising the Secretary of State on programs and policies to advance the use of cultural diplomacy in United States foreign policy. This charge includes providing the Secretary guidance on increasing the presentation abroad of the finest of U.S. creative, visual and performing arts, as well as strategies for increasing public-private partnerships to sponsor cultural programs that promote the interests of the United States" (visit www.state.gov).

There have been many voices calling attention to cultural diplomacy lately, such as Arts and Minds: A Conference on Cultural Diplomacy Amid Global Tensions, a 2003 event sponsored by Columbia's National Arts Journalism Program, the Center for Arts and Culture and the now defunct Arts International (visit www.najp.org).

"Cultural Diplomacy: Recommendations and Research," a report based on studies commissioned by the Center for Arts and Culture, points to a shocking decline in activity: "The number of academic and cultural exchanges has dropped from 45,000 in 1995 to 29,000 in 2001." With the 1999 dismantling of the United States Information Agency (USIA) and its absorption into the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the staff of the government's chief cultural diplomatic arm now numbers 6,715, as compared to more than 12,000 in the mid-1960s. The center recommends a long-term federal investment in cultural diplomacy efforts, and it offers specific suggestions to improve State Department policies, leverage federal funding through private sector partnerships and strengthen existing programs with additional funding. The full report is at www.culturalpolicy.org.

In a strongly worded Feb. 26 Washington Post article, four former directors of USIA contend that "shutting down the USIA was a major mistake." They note that "insistent calls for rebuilding America's public diplomacy have come from both sides of the aisle in Congress" and that recommendations from diverse sources urge "some form of governmental initiative that would promote global stability and counter the anti-American tide by convincing people of other countries and cultures that the United States is not just a sometimes overweening superpower but a nation of high ideals, constructive ideas and intentions and worthwhile goals."

Even as we join the voices challenging our government to make a serious commitment to cultural diplomacy, we should not wait for the government to take the lead.

I could fill this page with the names of American theatres and artists who have engaged in collaboration with others around the world, despite the logistical, financial and legal obstacles, with or without government support, because they know that such collaborations are essential.

There is a fundamental difference between the official approach to cultural diplomacy—where the emphasis is on the diplomacy, and culture is merely a tool or, worse, a weapon—and the approach taken by artists. Artists engage in cross-cultural exchange not to proselytize about their own values but rather to understand different cultural traditions, to find new sources of imaginative inspiration, to discover other methods and ways of working and to exchange ideas with people whose worldviews differ from their own. They want to be influenced rather than to influence.

So here's my unsolicited advice to Secretary Rice:

Listen to artists, who have been working internationally for all these years—collaborating artist-to-artist and artist-to-audience—finding shared values, mutual respect and understanding in the midst of difference. They are the true cultural diplomats—emphasis on the cultural.