Melodie Armstrong is drafting an Idaho Humanities Council grant proposal
for a "community retreat" that we previously introduced to this list.
Below, I have posted her initial draft of #1, 3, and 5. The first two (1 &
3) I am posting to provide the framework for retreat idea.
However, we could use your assistance on #5! List subscribers are
encouraged to suggest "key humanists" who ought to have a role in the
retreat. Although I recommend posting your suggestions to the entire list,
you may privately your suggestions to Melodie at melodie@wsunix.wsu.edu
Many thanks for your thoughts on this!
Susan Palmer
Moscow Vision 2020
1. Briefly provide a summary of the project.
This project seeks to continue and strengthen the civic dialogs
and community planning that has occurred in this community in the past.
Moscow Vision 2020 was a project that began in 1993 with
the solicitation of positive and negative scenarios for development
in Moscow by the year 2020. These were then developed into a play, which
was performed at the University of Idaho Student Union Building.
3. How is this a humanities project and why is it important?
The focus of this project is to provide the citizens of Moscow with
an opportunity to engage in some visioning about their community and their
lives within that community. It will explore the role which
various components of community - education, the arts, the environment,
economic development, civic government - play in the lives of people and
how to strengthen that role. The humanistic disciplines of
communications, philosophy, sociology and political theory, as well as
the performing arts are encompassed by the project.
Moscow has a strong history of community activity. It is also a
recognized center of the arts in the Pacific Northwest, as well as being a
focal point for environmental issues in the region. An opportunity
to bring the community's divergent elements together for the purpose of
exploring and mapping our common future is a vital act of exercising a
commitment to the concerned citizenship.
5. List and describe the backgrounds of the key humanists,
briefly stating their credentials, institutional affiliations and,
specifically, what role each will play in the project.
Daniel Kemmis - Former minority leader and Speaker of the Montana House
of Representatives, former Mayor of Missoula, Montana, current director of
the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, and author of the book "Community
and the Politics of Place". Mr Kemmis discusses community discourse,
and how diverse groups can be brought together through common interests
and public discourse.