Forum discusses 'cultural arts'

Singers, dancers, painters, poets, sculptors, writers and journalists -- come one, come all. The Pew Charitable Trusts wants your support. The Penn Humanities Forum held a panel discussion last Thursday night in College Hall on cultural arts policy and the role it plays in American society today. The Humanities Forum is a new initiative that was launched last spring as an interdisciplinary effort to unite area universities with the Philadelphia community and promote faculty collaboration across different disciplines. This year's theme for the forum is "Human Nature," which looks to join humanists with scientists. Last Thursday's panelists included Stephen Urice, Pew's national culture program officer, and Pew Culture Program Director Marian Godfrey, as well as Philadelphia Inquirer columnist David Boltz and Philadelphia Daily News editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson. Professors from Columbia, Stanford and Ohio State universities also sat on the panel. English Professor Wendy Steiner, the director of the Penn Humanities Forum, served as the moderator. One major issue that the panel addressed was funding the arts. The Pew Charitable Trusts, endowed by the founders of the Sun Trust Oil Company, has just established a five-year, $50 million program dedicated to the research of cultural arts. "Artists, citizens, philanthropists and the government together will play a distinct role in determining public and private policy," Urice said. "It is not the intent to create one national cultural policy or a plot to bureaucratize the field." While one of the intentions of the Forum is to create a dialogue about University issues, the topics discussed went far beyond the college community. In particular, the group discussed the recent controversy surrounding New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who tried to cut funding for the Brooklyn Museum because of material he found offensive. The museum filed a lawsuit against him to block the move. According to Steiner, it was exactly this sort of discussion she envisioned for the Humanities Forum. "Interacting with members from various cultural institutions from the city is actually one forum of the program," Steiner said. "We hope to interest students by focusing both on the real world and college life." "I think it's a wonderful way for people with liberal arts backgrounds to interact with university students," said College senior Jennifer Luo, who works for the Penn Humanities Forum. "It shows you so much about the culture of Philadelphia."