Symposium explores cultural engagement in Chicago and Birmingham

The University of Birmingham will co-host a cultural engagement symposium at the Chicago Cultural Center on Tuesday 8 May 2012 focused on connecting cities, universities and international partners in arts and culture. Entitled Local and Global Cultural Engagement: Connecting Cities, Universities and International Partners ,the symposium will identify best practice for cross-sector partnerships between cultural institutions and academia, and explore the potentially dynamic relationship between local and global cultural engagement agendas. Opening the symposium is Commissioner of the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Michelle T. Boone. The programme includes a session on university cultural engagement, led by Professor Larry Norman, Deputy Provost for the Arts at the University of Chicago and Professor Ian Grosvenor, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Cultural Engagement at the University of Birmingham. Other sessions will cover cultural heritage; cross-sector collaborative research and new technologies; and public libraries and cultural learning from the perspective of both the Chicago Public Library Commissioner and his Birmingham counterpart. Directors from the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute will also lead a session on the legacy of the playwright both in the Midlands and in the US Midwest. Chicago and Birmingham have been sister cities since 1993 and, building on this relationship, the University of Birmingham and the City of Birmingham have initiated a range of development activities with institutions and organisations based in Chicago and the Midwest.