DRESDEN, GERMANY.-Strategies for the Future of Culture: Dresden in Global Context, a conference in Dresden, Germany, will take place October 27-29, 2005. This major conference examines 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 is 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 discuss presentation of the arts to a diverse public, the preservation of objects, sites, and other forms of cultural _expression for generations to come, the future of culture and the creation of art, and sustainable solutions to this challenging problem.

AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE AGREED TO PARTICIPATE:

• Ross Bleckner, contemporary painter 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; Lawrence Kaye, attorney who has argued regarding cultural repatriation and antiquities before the U.S. Supreme Court
• Richard Gluckman, architect whose numerous museum and gallery commissions include the Guggenheim in Berlin
• Mark Jonathan Harris, filmmaker and three-time Academy award winner
• Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior Advisor to the President of RAND
• Peter Kulka, architect; his work includes German Horticultural Museum, Erfurt (2000); restoring the former University Tower, Leipzig-Zentrum; and the Hygiene Museum, Dresden
• Paul LeClerc, President, The New York Public Library
• Constance Lowenthal, former Director, Commission for Art Recovery, World Jewish Congress (1998 – 2001) and Executive Director, International Foundation for Art Research [IFAR] (1985 – 1998)
• 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, producer and director of 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
• 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.
• 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)

The conference is organized by Lisa Koenigsberg, advisor to the Dean for Arts Initiatives and adjunct professor of the arts, NYU (SCPS), who established the NYU series of conferences on the preservation and creation of culture in the 21st century in 2002; she is the founder and President of Initiatives in Art and Culture. To register visit the website at http://www.scps.nyu.edu/dresdenculture where you can also download the conference brochure and schedule.