LAUNCHING FRIENDS OF THE BRITISH COUNCIL
Tomorrow is the official launch of the new nonprofit organization, Friends of the British Council. The Friends is a new organization that works in partnership with the British Council to promote engagement and support for British Council programs around the world. Friends of the British Council recently received 501 (c)3 tax exempt status as a US-based charity.
Look out for more information on the growth of the Friends of the British Council and how you can get involved.
Hong Kong Conference Explores the Globalization of Higher Education
Last month over a thousand higher education industry leaders and policymakers from 60 countries converged in Hong Kong for Going Global, British Council's flagship education conference.
Over 40 Americans attended the conference, including the following speakers:
Taking place outside of the UK for the first time, the conference attracted a number of participants from Asia and explored ways to establish regional education hubs, the impact of transnational education, the influence of international rankings, and enhancing the experience of international students.
Read more about the conference in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Follow Our New Blog
Find out what we're up to in between monthly newsletters on our new blog, British Council Voices USA.
We're interested in building conversations and debate with American professionals working in similar fields. Whether you're an arts presenter, a public diplomacy academic or just eager to engage internationally, we're looking forward to talking with you on our blog.
Read our recent posts about cuts to UK arts funding and the differences between British and American theatre audiences. You can also subscribe to our RSS feeds and we welcome your comments!
You can also find us on Twitter.
Pakistan's Education Emergency Mission to the US
We are bringing seven of Pakistan's key education reformers to the US next month to build awareness of Pakistan's education emergency.
The challenges facing the education system in Pakistan are so great and urgent that they can only be described as an emergency: Half of the adult population is illiterate and nearly a quarter of Pakistani children receive no education.
Transforming Pakistan's education system requires a new approach: one that builds a cross-party, enduring, Pakistani coalition for change backed by public demand; supports Pakistani leadership with coherent messaging and recognition from the international community; and increases understanding that accelerated education reform in Pakistan can happen.
The British Council works in close partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and is facilitating this visit to the USA as part of a communications contract for the Pakistan Education Task Force, funded by DFID. Stay tuned for more details about the visit next month.
BritWeek 2011: UK Visual Arts in Los Angeles
Contemporary British art storms Los Angeles this spring during BritWeek, in a partnership between L.A. Art Machine, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the British Council.
Celebrating exceptional creative talent from the UK, every year BritWeek in Los Angeles is one of the largest transatlantic cultural events taking place on this side of the pond.
In 2011 the visual art program highlights British artists pushing aesthetic and social boundaries in exhibitions of historic and contemporary art and design. Exhibitions and events this month include paintings by Matt Small and Pete Stern at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery and the premiere of the documentary Beyond Time: William Turnbull by Alex Turnbull and Pete Stern, narrated by Jude Law. Celebrated sculptor and painter William Turnbull has been called "the most important living British artist."
Learn more about all of the visual arts exhibitions and events happening in Los Angeles this spring below.
BRITISH COUNCIL AROUND THE WORLD
Afghan Pilots Graduate Aviation English Course
More than 80 Afghan Air Force (AAF) pilots recently graduated from a British Council aviation English course.
"NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan goes out looking for help developing the AAF. The British Council is unique because they came to us willing to help," said Col. Kenneth Madura, the commander of the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group which works directly with the graduating pilots. "NATC-A does not have the resources to train all of the people who need to learn English, so this program has been a blessing for the AAF and NATC-A."
Our colleagues in Kabul are also working with the new Afghan Defence University and are helping train 45,000 English language teachers throughout Afghanistan.
Play Created in Palestinian Refugee Camp Headed to England
A play first staged at the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut has now made it to professional theaters in Lebanon and the UK.
UK poet Peter Mortimer visited the Shatila refugee camp a few years ago, wrote a book and decided to raise money to create and stage a play with children from the camp.
Croak, the King and a Change in the Weather combines theater with contemporary dance, music and poetry and is currently performing at The Sage Gateshead in North Tyneside, England.
British Council assisted with travel and production costs.
BRITISH CULTURAL EVENTS IN THE US
BRITISH COUNCIL SUPPORTED EVENTS
Matt Small and Pete Stern
The paintings of Matt Small reflect his belief in social inclusion as he depicts the marginalized and voiceless in his arresting portraits. Multi-media artist Pete Stern's work is energized by the freedom of thought of the 1960s and the anarchic attitudes of 1970s punk movements.
April 16- May 14
Merry Karnowsky Gallery
William Turnbull
Celebrated sculptor and painter William Turnbull has been recently described as "the most important living British artist." Over the past sixty years, his work has helped define the field of modern and contemporary art. In celebration of this important artist, BritWeek premieres the documentary Beyond Time: William Turnbull by Alex Turnbull and Pete Stern, narrated by Jude Law.
April 29
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Marcos Lutyens
Multi-disciplinary artist Marcos Lutyens combines new technologies and explorations of the mind in his work. Enstasy Now explores the convergence between mind and machines in a series of large-scale drawings performed by semi-autonomous robots as well as human-guided machines.
May 10
Variety Building
Christopher Farr
For the past 20 years Christopher Farr has often been referred to as one of the most influential designers in the world. Once trained as a painter, he now marries his love of abstraction to the ancient craft of textile art, creating unique contemporary rug designs.
May 11
L.A. MART
Tobias Keene
Third-generation British painter Tobias Keene currently lives and works in Los Angeles, creating works that explore a quality of lost innocence through the immediacy of color, texture and form.
May 13
Pacific Electric Lofts
OTHER EVENTS
At any given time, there are a large number of British cultural events taking place across the US. The following are a small selection of non-British Council events. Please contact the venues listed for more information.
Contemporary Black-British Play Readings
Soho Rep hosts a festival of readings showcasing contemporary Black-British playwrights, including Bola Agbaje, Winsome Pinnock, Roy Williams, & Kwame Kwei-Armah. Readings will be followed by a Q& A with the artists.
March 30- April 24
Soho Rep
New York, NY
Debbie Tucker Green's Born Bad
Oliver Award winner Born Bad is an explosive drama that follows one family trying to make sense of their past. The play marks Tucker Green's US debut.
April 6-9
Soho Rep
New York, NY
Scotland Week
Scotland Week is a celebration of Scotland in the USA and Canada from April 3 to 10, including Tartan Day on April 6. Millions of people across the globe can lay claim to Scots descent and Scotland Week allows people everywhere the chance to celebrate and explore their connections with Scotland. US events include the Scotland Run and the Tartan Day Parade in New York.
Close: A Journey in Scotland
The United States Botanic Garden is featuring 40 Scottish gardens in a photography exhibit by Allan Pollok-Morris. Pollok-Morris' photographs are stunning, but the gardens themselves and Scotland are the stars of this exhibit. Learn more about the exhibit in the Washington Post.
January 22 - June 5
United States Botanic Garden
Washington, DC
Black Watch
The National Theatre of Scotland's critically-acclaimed production Black Watch returns to the US for the third time. Black Watch is based on interviews with former Scottish soldiers who recently served in Iraq. Viewed through the eyes of those on the ground, this powerful piece of theater tells the story of Scotland's legendary 300 year-old Black Watch regiment, whose disbandment was announced in 2004 just before its 800-man battalion replaced some 4,000 US Marines in one of the bloodiest areas of Iraq.
March 29 - April 10
Broadway Armory
Chicago, IL
April 14 - May 8
St. Ann's Warehouse
New York, NY
The Drummond Will
Film Fest DC features UK filmmaker AlanButterworth's The Drummond Will. A comedy that veers into quirky mystery, The Drummond Will features two brothers who return to a rural village for their father's funeral and meet up with unusually peculiar village folk and increasingly frightening adventures.
April 10-11
Landmark's E Street Cinema
Washington, DC
Talking Pictures
Welsh celebrity photographer Cambridge Jones captures creative personalities in poses that surprise, delight, and go against type. In order that visitors can closely connect with each image, Cambridge asked each of his subjects to deliver a short audio message. Accompanying each image is a spontaneous answer to the question he posed at the end of each shoot: "Tell me who or what inspired you."
March 3 - April 24
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Los Angeles, California
Sleep No More
The ghosts of Shakespeare and Hitchcock will haunt New York in Sleep No More, the New York debut from British theater company Punchdrunk. Punchdrunk are pioneers of a new form of "immersive theater" where roaming audiences guide themselves through deeply atmospheric worlds. Blending classic texts, award-winning design installation and extraordinary sites, Punchdrunk transports viewers from the traditionally passive form of conventional theater to a state of active imagination and engagement. The New York performance follows the US premiere in Boston last fall, which was supported by the British Council.
March 7 - April 16
Emursive at the McKittrick Hotel
New York, NY
War Horse
The National Theatre's War Horse travels from the verdant English countryside to the fields of France and Germany at the outbreak of World War I. A boy's beloved horse has been sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Caught up in enemy fire, the horse serves on both sides of the war, and survives an odyssey that leaves him alone in no-man's land. The boy, now a young man, cannot forget his horse, and embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.
March 15 - June 26
Lincoln Center Theater-Vivian Beaumont
New York, NY
Macbeth
From Olivier Award-winning UK company Cheek by Jowl comes a scintillating take on Shakespeare's Macbeth that is physical, psychologically taut, and unsettling to the bone. Declan Donnellan directs, Nick Ormerod provides the elegantly restrained sets, and the exceptional Will Keen delivers a wrenching account of the title role, conveying the doomed general's emotional turmoil with chilling authenticity.
April 5-16
BAM Harvey Theater
New York, NY
Howard Jacobson Returns to Washington, DC
Howard Jacobson, author of the 2010 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Finkler Question, returns to Washington, DC for a reading at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Jacobson spent a month in Washington last winter as a UK Writer-in-Residence at George Washington University, teaching a one-credit course and participating in a range of public events.
April 7
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
Washington, DC
King Lear
UK Director Michael Grandage's interpretation of the Shakespearean classic was called "The finest King Lear I have ever seen" by the UK's Daily Telegraph and the UK's Observer acclaimed, "'Grandage's production...remakes the idea of what Shakespeare can be."
April 28 - June 5
Donmar Warehouse
New York, NY
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