Inter-cultural dialogue & the new philanthropy
There has been a growing awareness recently of what people are calling the new philanthropy. Most people still associate philanthropists with the beginning of the twentieth century and men who built huge fortunes from railways or steel or oil. Philanthropy today is once more riding a wave of wealth creation. This time it seems to be happening as part of the major economic shift to a knowledge economy. The long bull market of the 1980s and 90s- the new fortunes made from technology, finance, media and other quintessential knowledge fields- has sparked a rapid growth in the setting-up of foundations and other philanthropic ventures, not just in the United States but also world-wide.
But global philanthropy is no longer just about making money and donating it to charity - if it ever was. It is about investing in the most promising agents of change in society.
A phrase often heard in philanthropy is: "If you've seen one foundation, you've seen one foundation"- a nod to the strong individualism which characterises the sector. The original passions, motivations and priorities of the donors shape the institutions they create, often resulting in distinctive organisational cultures.
Towards the end of 2006 in a spectacularly converted coachworks in West London, a new art and cultural Institute opened - the Louise T Blouin Institute. It is part of the wider global media business, with a commitment to the arts and culture, founded by Louise T. Blouin MacBain, a French Canadian philanthropist with strong ideas about how culture and creativity can help us learn to think in new ways across boundaries and across disciplines in the 21st century. In the almost religious white-walled and silent calm of the Institute, Caroline Boyle talked to Louise about her ideas for change and inter-cultural dialogue.
What is the Louise T Blouin Foundation and Institute and what are you hoping to achieve by establishing them?
Our mission is promoting culture and enhancing creativity across the world because we believe in the unique power of culture and creativity to be catalysts for positive change. In the Foundation we have two aims: to encourage a better understanding of culture beyond and across borders through international co-operation, exchange and dialogue; and to explore the broader practical significance of creativity and the creative potential of the human brain. We are an international non-for-profit organisation and we work as an investor, originator and partner to pursue our goals. The Institute has been founded here in Notting Hill to house exhibitions, think-tanks, performances, film screenings and artistic productions. Through the Foundation we intend to offer residences and internships and provide opportunities for artistic professional development.
We have a range of projects including the Global Creative Leadership Summit inaugurated in New York in November 2006. This first summit provided and supported various themes and questions which we will be pursuing in the coming months and years: exploring cultural identity on the premise that culture is the DNA of our social identity; and capturing creative capacity. All our challenges seem to have a global prefix: geo-economics, geo-environment, geo-culture. I guess the question I want us to try to answer is how can we develop the new geo-ideas required to address geo-problems? How do we develop a "geo" prefix for our mind? Who do we want the 21st century citizen to be?
Does new technology and ways of communicating globally and immediately play a significant part in the Foundation's work and provide one of the reasons for this being the right time for setting it up now?
Of course, these new demands on our minds are not just greater in scale--they are intricately interlinked. Technology and globalization have forced new proximity and new challenges. Out of sight is no longer out of mind. This new proximity brings into greater focus the gaps between societies. Values, beliefs, traditions and religions are increasingly misunderstood and feared. We may have flattened the economies of our world, but the valleys between cultures --between rich and poor, between the first world and the third--are deeper and more threatening than ever. Even though we are more connected than ever, it does not follow that we understand one another better. The levels of misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge and empathy restrict our capacity to build global consensus and unity. We need to see further into the minds of both our allies and our enemies to begin building a more stable and successful world. We will ourselves make full use of new technology to spread our ideas faster, wider and deeper than would have been possible previously.
Can you tell us something about the projects you are currently supporting?
We have five main projects in the category of promoting culture beyond borders: 'The Soldiers Tale' is a cultural collaboration between Iraqui and European performers, staged here in London in 2006 at the Old Vic. 'Bring New Orleans Back' sees the cultural fabric of New Orleans as essential to the heart of the city and the Foundation is supporting long-term investment in its cultural strategy. '4 Generations' is a collaboration between leading Israeli and Palestinian film-makers, writers and historians. The TV series chronicles the stories of two families and will be filmed in Hebrew, Arabic and English. 'Making the case for culture' is a key research project shared with the OECD to determine whether there is a correlation between the proportion of GDP spent on culture, economic prosperity and the quality of life in different countries. First results are expected in Spring 2007. We are also building cultural exchanges with the Middle East and China.
In the education and creativity category we have three projects: Art and the new biology of the mind - a think tank which focused on the senses as a tool for discovery and creative learning and tried to define the relationship between science and creativity; a research review on music and the brain and the Global Creative Leadership Summit I mentioned earlier which is working closely with the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships.
You talk about who do we want the 21st citizen to be, is current school education helping or hindering?
School curricula designed for the industrial revolution will not satisfy the iPod generation. More cross-disciplinary learning, greater cultural understanding and a focus on utilizing the senses and the visual might all begin to develop the creativity required today. As someone said at our recent Summit, "the fourth R is art".
But it is not just in school where we need to learn to think differently. In a flatter world, businesses need to learn to transport ideas as swiftly as products. People say there is a new corporate Darwinism--the survival of the most creative--and those companies that best compete will be those that best understand the brains of their customers and their employees.
Beyond the classroom and the boardroom, how we develop our ability to find new, innovative solutions to issues of government and society will define the quality of life of the 21st-century citizen. At the heart of all of this is an attempt to grasp the potential power of the mind. In particular, developments in the understanding of neuroscience can play a crucial role in developing our cultural empathy, enhancing our creativity, stimulating dialogue and translating it all into practical advances.
The exhibition: James Turrell: A Life in Light is currently showing at the Louise T Blouin Institute, 3 Olaf Street, London W11 4BE - map -www.ltbfoundation.org
2008 will be the European Year of Inter-cultural dialogue