The next edition of the Art and Diplomacy seminar by Amb. Randi Charno Levine, Honorary Professor of Art and Diplomacy at UCP, hosted by the Lisbon Consortium, will take place on 2 November, at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. The program will bring to Lisbon Ana Sokoloff (art advisor and Founding Partner of Sokoloff + Associates), Deborah Kass (artist), and Lisa Phillips (Director Emerita, New Museum). The Art and Diplomacy seminar is an extracurricular program organized for the Lisbon Consortium community and open to public.
Lecture
Cultural Diplomacy Today: A World in Need
2 November 17:00-18:00, Sala Exposições (Building 4)
Amb. Randi Charno Levine
with Ana Sokoloff, Deb Kass and Lisa Phillips
International alliances are shifting, and the cultural ties that support them are under strain. In this lecture, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Randi Charno Levine looks at the role of cultural diplomacy in today’s geopolitical climate. She draws on her time in Lisbon, where her contemporary Art in Embassies exhibition, Celebrating Diversity, used the Ambassador’s Residence as a space for dialogue on democracy, representation and freedom of expression. She then asks what happens when governments change what they are willing to show about themselves, and what that means for artists, museums, curators and a nation’s credibility abroad. Artist Deborah Kass, New Museum Director Emerita Lisa Phillips and art advisor Ana Sokoloff join the conversation throughout. The session ends with practical lessons for students who want to build intentional, sustainable people-to-people ties through culture.
Panel discussion
Who Gets to Decide? Cultural Value, Institutional Power and Global Art Markets
2 November 18:30-20:00, Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics (Building 5), Auditorium 511
Ana Sokoloff
(Founding Partner, Sokoloff + Associates)
Deb Kass
(artist)
Lisa Phillips
(Director Emerita, New Museum)
Chair: Amb. Randi Charno Levine
Artists, galleries, collectors, museums, auction houses, funders and governments all help decide what art is seen, valued and preserved. So when their interests clash, who has the final say? This evening panel brings together views from diplomacy, institutional leadership, artistic practice and the art market. The panelists take that question from five angles: who assigns value, who holds power, who gives work legitimacy, who pays, and who builds relationships across borders. Drawing on decades of experience, they look at how museums grow without losing their purpose, how artists protect their independence once they succeed, and how money and influence shape culture. They also ask whether all of these activities are, in the end, forms of cultural diplomacy. The program closes with questions from students.
Registrations: lxconsortium@ucp.pt
