mid-month Connect RAP: 3/15/23 ~ Homelands
Greetings and Happy Midweek!
And since today is mid-month, it’s time for another of our RAP sessions (Review And Process, deeper and wider). Each RAP revisits a cross-cultural theme or topic from a previous Connect. This month we are going to revisit Culture and Art *, and focus in on a movement validating one cultural homeland in particular, illustrating the HOME dimension of Global SKILLs 3D Dynamics.**
Since the war in Ukraine began just over a year ago, heroic efforts have been made to protect and preserve Ukraine’s homeland and vastly rich culture - people, places, artifacts and everyday items which define and celebrate centuries of Ukrainian history and heritage.
One particularly inspiring effort is now gaining momentum, through the collaborative efforts of artists, business people, internationally recognized fine art institutions and ordinary citizens.
The idea is to review and revise artwork identifications and artist’s origins, correctly attributing them as Ukrainian, rather than Russian or of Russian origin while Ukraine was ‘under the Russian Empire’.
This might seem a minor gesture in the wake of the devastation going on in Ukraine, but this movement is showing the world that grassroots efforts can and indeed do have important cultural significance - for those directly involved of course, but also globally. As the Ukrainian cultural homeland is validated even in the midst of being so horrendously attacked, changing a label on a painting displayed somewhere else in the world or identifying an artist’s true homeland when introducing their work really serves to give homeland and cultural identity their due credit.
How about you ~ what is an example of validating a homeland connect which you have experienced recently?
Share about that with a friend or note it here.
And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for more on this Ukrainian homeland movement and how it is playing out in various contexts.
Thanks for being part of this Connect community.
Until next week,
Betsy
Global SKILLs LINKs
~ the original article which inspired me so deeply…be sure to watch the video on moving a piece of artwork and the people connected with it, from harm’s way - to celebrate the Ukrainian homeland: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/ukrainian-art-reclassification/index.html
~ the broader movement: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ukrainians-defend-their-cultural-heritage-russian-destruction
~ key steps in this particular homeland effort, but adaptable to any similar effort: https://www.justsecurity.org/81212/how-can-we-protect-cultural-heritage-in-ukraine-five-key-steps-for-the-intl-community/
Notes
* related Connects: art-ful repurposing (6/15/22) - another way to validate and celebrate cultural homelands
** Through my business Global SKILLs and several partner subsidiaries I offer unique cross-cultural consulting and training including:
3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: 1st dimension = HOME (which we explored this week); 2nd dimension = HOST ; 3rd dimension = HARBOR
PROACTive Learning Strategies:
PRO = PROfile, PROcess, PROgram
ACT = Application, Collaboration and Transformation
~ contact me for more information on this model and these strategies and how you might use them in your current programming: betsy.barbour@gmail.com
2023 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in
intercultural communications and global community building
“It takes a community to build a community”
Please Note: this is copyrighted content.
Please do not reproduce or share without my permission (betsy.barbour@gmail.com)