This month we are supporting the return of The Great Game for the Pentagon, launching 37 new US university and college partnerships with the UK, and featuring the work of a young Indonesian at the UN's Forum on Forests.
Pentagon to View The Great Game
On Thursday February 11 and Friday February 12 we partnered with the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the Shakespeare Theatre Company to present London Tricycle Theatre's The Great Game: Afghanistan to a private Pentagon audience.
Senior military, Administration officials, Members of Congress, key decision makers, diplomats, corporate leaders, injured service members, and veterans will attend these special performances at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Sidney Harman Hall.
The Pentagon performances follow the highly acclaimed US tour last fall, presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC; the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; and the Public Theater in New York.
Learn more about these special performances or read the Washington Post's coverage.
37 US Universities Start New Partnerships with the UK
Last week we named 37 US universities and colleges as the recipients of the British Council's New Partnerships Fund, a new initiative to provide seed funding to 31 new and innovative British-American higher education projects.
Selected from hundreds of applications, winning projects come from a range of universities, including Yale University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Santa Monica Community College.
Many of the awards will facilitate third country partnerships, particularly joint US-UK collaborations with India and China, and research in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM).
Universities were selected based on project proposals submitted jointly with UK universities, ranging from highway engineering and cancer research to harnessing entrepreneurship for social and economic development. The Institute of International Education and the American Council of Education were involved in the selection process.
Over half of the UK's 200 universities applied for the fund, demonstrating the UK's demand for developing strategic partnerships with the US.
The 31 projects have all received seed corn grants of up to £20,000 ($30,000) to kick-start new research, joint course development and faculty and student exchanges
Paris Event to Explore Arts Access as a Human Right
Next week, members of two British Council emerging leaders groups, Transatlantic Network 2020 (TN2020) and Cultural Leadership International (CLI), will lead an international workshop in Paris exploring the role of culture and arts as a human right and how the arts influence integration and exclusion.
They will be joined by European, Canadian, and US leaders from the arts, media, human rights and education sectors, including a French art therapist and video artist working with HIV+ young people and the Deputy Program Director of the Arts and Culture Program at the Open Society Foundation.
The conference will include case studies on arts projects with Roma communities and hip hop in the Paris suburbs.
We are delighted to be working with the following organizations on this event: la Ville de Paris, le Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, Mairie de Paris, Canal 93, La Maison des Métallos, le Relais Culture Europe and le 104.
18 Year-Old US Online Activist Speaks out at World Economic Forum, Davos - And Lands a Job!
Eighteen year-old online activist Trevor Dougherty is returning home to Albuquerque, New Mexico this week after participating in the World Economic Forum in Davos as a Global Changemaker -- and landing a job at Seesmic, a San Francisco based social media company.
Trevor was the youngest American participant in the conference featuring world leaders and Fortune 100 CEOs.
In Davos, Trevor took part in the panel discussion on "Young People versus Old Models" and an IdeasLab on "Strengthening Communities for a Shared Future," but thought his most exciting role was being part of the panel on "The Social Network Addiction." Other panel members include LinkedIn and Google executives as well as the Archbishop of Dublin.
You can follow Trevor's experiences at Davos and learn more about how he landed his job at Seesmic on a Washington Post blog series, Changemakers at Davos.
Trevor was one of five Global Changemakers selected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. Global Changemakers is a British Council network of young social entrepreneurs and community activists from 110 countries who come together to share ideas and collaborate on projects that directly impact their communities.
British Teachers Visit 6 US School Districts
This month, teachers from England will visit six US public school districts across the country to exchange best practices as part of the Teachers' International Professional Development program (TIPD).
The British teachers will spend a week at schools in Chicago, IL; Fairfax County, VA; Washington, DC; Montgomery County, MD; Miami, FL; and Houston, TX.
TIPD is funded by the UK Department for Education and managed by the British Council.
Atlas of Islamic-World Innovation Presented at AAAS Meeting
Supported by the British Council and the International Development Research Centre in Canada, the UK's Royal Society is preparing a landmark study of science and technology-based innovation across the 57-member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Related to the study, the Royal Society will present "Education, Science and Innovation as Tools for New Engagement with the Islamic World" at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington on February 18.
The presentation will include preliminary findings from the "Atlas of Islamic-World Innovation" and feature Mohamed H. Hassan of the Third World Academy of Sciences and Magdi Yacoub of Imperial College London.
Climate Champion Presents to UN, Kicking Off International Year of Forests
On Friday, Indonesian Climate Champion Mahrizal Paru will help kick off the United Nation's International Year of Forests, speaking at a session at the Forum on Forests, "The Power of One Child + One Tree = A Sustainable Future for All."
The event will highlight the importance of empowering the world's 2.2 billion children to plant and care for trees and forests worldwide.
The presentations will focus on school-based and non-formal youth-led agro-forestry, indigenous tree nurseries and education.
Mahrizal, 29, helped protect 280 acres of forest and provided 192 members of his village with $700,000 annual income from his community plantation in war-torn Aceh, Indonesia.
BRITISH COUNCIL AROUND THE WORLD
New Theatre from the Gulf Now Online
In partnership with Digital Theatre, a London-based company specializing in digitizing performance art, this week we brought six Arab plays to the world stage online as part of Gulf Stage.
Our Qatar office worked with Digital Theatre to film and digitize theatre productions from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE during the Gulf Co-operation Countries Youth Theatre Festival in October. The six productions, which are subtitled in English, are now available online free of charge though Digital Theatre's website: http://www.digitaltheatre.com/gulfstage.
Learn more about Gulf Stage in the UK's Guardian.
BRITISH CULTURAL EVENTS IN THE US
BRITISH COUNCIL SUPPORTED EVENTS
Graham Hudson: Arthouse at the Jones Center
Supported by Grants-to-Artists, British artist Graham Hudson transforms Arthouse in Austin into a monumental sculpture inspired by London's famous music venue, The Astoria Theatre. For this project - his first in the United States - Hudson creates a collaborative artwork that connects London's past with Austin's present through a multi-layered sculptural and musical experience.
February 4 - April 10
Arthouse at the Jones Center
Austin, TX
Amy Hardie: The Edge of Dreaming
Scottish director/producer Amy Hardie launches the Brainwave series at the Rubin Museum of Art this February with films and workshops. In her feature documentary The Edge of Dreaming, Hardie tells her story of discovering the nature of 'dreaming as prophecy,' during a journey that takes her to a neuroscientist, a shaman, and the gritty realism of a hospital bed. Screenings at the museum are coupled with workshops which allow audiences to bring their own perspectives to the film experience.
February 16-27
Rubin Museum of Art
New York, NY
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.
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 theatre 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.
January 26 - February 6
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Washington, DC
February 9 - 13
Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC
February 16 - 20
Bass Concert Hall, University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
March 29 - April 10
Broadway Armory
Chicago, IL
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