Delivered by
Dr. Hong,
President of World
Culture Open Committee |
Ladies and Gentleman, it is my great pleasure, as the President of World Culture Open, to welcome you to the inaugural WCO Awards Ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City on September 9, 2004. Tonight¡¯s Awards Ceremony, featuring some of the world¡¯s preeminent artists in traditional dance, music, and movement, is a momentous occasion for all us, marking the beginning of an international cultural revival.
Beginning today, in New York City and finishing on September 19 in North and South Korea, World Culture Open 2004 is bringing together artists and cultural ambassadors who are creating breakthroughs in peace and reconciliation. World Culture Open is harnessing these universal languages of arts and culture, and invites you to believe, as we do, that peace can be achieved when individuals communicate using this shared language.
World Culture Open is a forum that is open and accessible to every culture existing within this beautifully diverse world. This forum is welcome to everyone - for it transcends recently constructed political boundaries and emphasizes the need for dialogue using languages we all once spoke: the venerable, centuries-old languages of arts and culture. Languages once abandoned are now being revived.
How do we revisit the inherent life lessons ingrained in 10,000 year-old artistic and culture traditions? How can we reintegrate these ancient languages into our modern world? World Culture Open envisions three avenues worth pursuing in this quest and our approach effects change in three subsequent levels of society: the political arena, the social arena, and the economic arena. From a political perspective, we work with Culture Ministers and Ambassadors from around the world (some of whom are present tonight) to construct a political forum where arts and culture can be used for diplomatic dialogue. From a social perspective, we provide artists and cultural emissaries with a physical forum to exchange and interact - much like an Olympic festival - but this time, an Olympic festival of Arts and Culture. And from an economic perspective, we award three substantial, financial Awards - known as the Peace Prize for Arts and Culture - to innovators in the fields of Creative Arts, Holistic Arts, and Humanitarian Service.
We must be strategic in our use of arts and culture. Since September 11th, there has been a growing chasm between people of different cultures and societies that threatens our vision for peace and the opportunity for dialogue and reconciliation. The artists performing tonight, as well as the twelve finalists being honored for their groundbreaking work, are inspiring examples of
a growing movement that is building bridges between societies using the arts and culture.
Tonight, we celebrate twelve phenomenal bridge-builders - engaged in the Creative Arts, the Holistic Arts, and Humanitarian Service - who are working diligently for a better world. I invite you to join us on this exciting and necessary journey, building bridges where chasms exist. I welcome you to the beginning of World Culture Open. |