submitted by mangana@augsburg.edu
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Forum is fast-approaching! This year the Nobel Peace Prize Forum will be honoring the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, and their work creating peace during a tumultuous time in Tunisia’s history. World leaders, activists, civil rights leaders, and many others will be gathering at the Forum to promote peacemaking and create a dialogue among both the local Twin Cities community and the greater global community.
In the spirit of fostering dialogue and engagement during the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, local and national artists have collaborated to create an outdoor exhibition of installations across the Augsburg University campus. These installations visually represent a form of dialogue and are connected by the forum’s concentric circles. This work highlights the layered and often overlapping complexity of finding solutions to global issues; that small moments of inspiration can resonate through our actions; and that art may stand in the center of an ever-expanding understanding of our world.
In “Future Light,” artist Asia Ward asks us to consider potential uses of sunlight under a canopy of dichroic film panels. “Common thread” by Background Stories provides an active, changing visual narrative created by the participants of this Forum. Design & Agency’s canopy of “Flint Project” creates space for reflection on our resources, how our wellbeing hangs in the balance, and young artists from Chicago’s National Youth Art Movement Against Gun Violence (NYAM) are not just seen and heard but in fact hold space on campus. They invite discussion through provocative large scale artwork, both physically and virtually.
Students and staff can attend the Forum for free! The Forum is held at Augsburg from the 13th-16th of September. If you would like to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Forum you can register as a representative or a delegate at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum website: http://nobelpeaceprizeforum.org/