FREE Community Event

Acting Together:
Join the Conversation
Featuring introduction of the film by
Cynthia Cohen, Project Director and dialogue
after screening.

Thursday, March 22, 2012
6:30-8:00 pm (6 pm registration)
JIBC New Westminster Campus

From the boundary of human suffering and human possibility emerges a story that offers hope to our war-weary world. It is a story that arises on a contested boundary, but not the kind of boundary that divides people at war. It is rather the border between the violence and inequity of our current condition and the more just and peaceful world we seek, terrain where artists and peacebuilders engage people in creative acts of courage and moral imagination.

Acting Together, a collaboration between Brandeis University and Theatre Without Borders, has been exploring this terrain for the past six years. The project documents peacebuilding performance, highlighting artists, peacebuilders, and community leaders from every continent whose rituals and theatrical works speak truth to power and support communities to mourn losses and build bridges across differences.

Registration for this FREE event is required:
Email scsj@jibc.ca, or call 604.528.5608 to secure your seat.

For More Information:
604.528.5608 or 1.888.799.0801 or scsj@jibc.ca or www.jibc.ca/scsj

Acting Together:
Accessing Creativity to Transform Conflict (SPE129)

Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 9am-4pm
JIBC New Westminster Campus
Fee: $175 (plus HST)

Across the world, resilience is being catalyzed by the arts in communities where conflict has wreaked destruction. In this one day workshop, participants will learn ways to use a range of arts-based approaches in diverse conflict contexts. Drawing on the work of the Acting Together (Brandeis University) and the Dancing at the Crossroads (the University of British Columbia) projects, Dr. Cynthia Cohen and Professor Michelle LeBaron will lead explorations of creative approaches that foster strength and health and deepen cultural fluency. Participants will learn a range of strategies useful across contexts informed by recent research in neuroscience and evaluation through case-based analysis and experiential learning.

Who should attend:

• JIBC graduates, current students and community members who are interested in cutting edge approaches to handling conflict
• Community workers in human services fields who want to improve their capacities to inspire others and shift negative dynamics
• Consultants whose careers involve mediation, facilitation and conflict management
• Those who want to become better at managing conflict in their personal, social, volunteer and work environments
• Students and educators in fields related to the arts, peace and justice, social transformation, literature, poetry and music
• Artists and leaders who want to invite others into creative possibility
• Artists and cultural leaders working in zones of violence and communities grappling with issues of diversity
• Activists seeking to enliven their organizing work with creative approaches
• Arts administrators

Three easy ways to register:

1. Online, or

2. Download our Course Registration Form, or

3. Contact our Registration Office directly at
   604-528-5590, toll free 1-877-528-5591, or
   register@jibc.ca

Dr. Cynthia Cohen is director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis University's International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. She is an internationally recognized educator, peacebuilding practitioner and researcher who focuses on the contributions of the arts to conflict transformation. Currently, Dr. Cohen is the principal investigator for the "Acting Together" project, a six year inquiry with theatre artists and leaders of ritual working in conflict regions around the world, undertaken in collaboration with Theatre Without Borders. The project is producing a documentary and toolkit, and a two-volume anthology, to be published by New Village Press in 2011.

Listen to an interview with Cindy Cohen about the"Acting Together on the World Stage" Conference.

Michelle LeBaron, joined the UBC Law Faculty in 2003 as a full professor and Director of the UBC Program on Dispute Resolution. Her research focuses on how the arts can foster belonging and social cohesion across cultural and worldview differences. Her current project investigates how dance, movement and kinesthetic awareness can enhance practitioners' and parties' capacities to transform conflict and is the subject of a forthcoming book, Dancing at the Crossroads: Movement and Arts-Based Approaches to Conflict Resolution., American Bar Association: Chicago, 2011.