To Life: Celebrating Diversity Through the Arts

Overview

“To Life” is envisioned as a series of free informal concerts that take place in April of 2013 — between the start of the Florida Holocaust Museum’s annual Genocide and Human Rights month and Earth Day. It might include short presentations by scientists, historians, and other scholars that could help bridge the gap between the culture of creative expression and the world of scientific reason and logic.

These events will be targeted to educators, grassroots activists, clergy, and corporate and institutional executives in the Tampa Bay Community. “To Life” performances are a catalyst to interaction; they will be informal and relaxed, with time both before and after the shows for people to mix and mingle and connect in unexpected ways.

Experiencing some of the best and/or most representative of each culture’s art allows us to move beyond mere tolerance to greater understanding, respect and appreciation for “the other.” It allows us to momentarily grasp the diverse strands of genius that are woven into the fabric of human society.

The events would rely on social media to both get the word out and document the performances. Bloggers and new media people (videomakers, webmasters, producers, etc.) would be encouraged to attend and react online to all the ideas, information, and inspiration.

The Diversity Imperative

“Surely it is not too idealistic to imagine a future global commonwealth in which each of the Earth’s citizens has a reasonable chance to create through his or her own efforts a decent life for self and
family; in which men and woman live in harmony with the Earth and its creatures, cooperating to create and maintain a wholesome environment for all; in which there is an ecology of different cultures, the diversity of which is appreciated and supported; in which war and flagrant violation of human rights in the name of the state has no legitimacy anywhere, and there is universal support of the rule of law throughout the world; and in which throughout the entire human family there is a deep and shared sense in the meaning of life itself.”

Willis Harman
Futurist, Social Scientist, Systems Engineer
(Stanford University and SRI International)

Relevant Quotes

“Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings of an intensity such as I cannot derive from other realms.”
Albert Einstein

“We will find a way eventually to live with our inborn turmoil, and perhaps find pleasure in viewing it as a primary source of our creativity.”
E.O. Wilson

“Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.”
René Dubos

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place.”
Margaret Mead

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
John F. Kennedy

“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”
Marshall McLuhan

“The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious.”
Report from the Club Of Rome — EU Chapter

About the Logo

The mark is composed of the Chai symbol that means “living” in Hebrew. It is spelled with two Hebrew letters, chet and yud. Some believe the symbol refers to G-d, the Breath of Life, and for others it relates to Judaism’s focus on the importance of life.

Chai is related to chaim, meaning “life,” often heard in the toast “l’chaim,” “to life.“

The overall circular design symbolizes wholeness and unity.

 

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