Below we list all the individuals and organisations that have been, are or will be cocreating and hosting a Silent Lecture. At the global level, the Silent Lecture Series is coordinated by the Democracy School. Anyone interested in hosting a Silent Lecture, please contact us via the contact form provided here.
The Berlin Lecture on Silence
19 Juni 2022 | On Silence, Stelenfeld, Holochaust Memorial, Berlin-MItte, Germany
Convened by Nicodemus, hosted by the Democracy School
Convened by Nicodemus, hosted by the Democracy School
Democracy School gUG (Germany) positions itself at the intersection of politics and culture to inspire, develop and work with individuals, initiatives, movements and organisations looking to bring about fundamental and lasting change peacefully.
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Nicodemus, aka Nico Andreas Heller (Germany), is an established theatre director, producer and artist. He also runs the Democracy School and is an experienced strategist, moderator and coach. In his work as a theatre director and artist, he is primarily interested in collaborative practices that cut across disciplinary boundaries.
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The Belfast Lecture on Compassion
01 October 2022 | Belfast Lecture Workshop at the Duncairn Arts Centre, Belfast, UK
Convened by Chérie Driver & Frank Liddy, hosted by Bbeyond in partnership with Compassion City Belfast
15 October 2022 | Belfast Lecture – site and topic to be established as part of the workshop
Convened by Chérie Driver & Frank Liddy, hosted by Bbeyond in partnership with Compassion City Belfast
15 October 2022 | Belfast Lecture – site and topic to be established as part of the workshop
Bbeyond (Ireland) is committed to promoting the practice of performance art and artists in Northern Ireland and further afield. Their aim is to raise people’s consciousness of live or performance art as being integral to the world in and around us, inspiring reflection and enriching lived experience.
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Compassion City Belfast (Ireland) aims to cultivate an informed empathy and sees as its purpose to seed and nurture (a) an improved health and sense of well-being among the public, (b) a heightened empathy among the public with the suffering of all human beings leading to greater tolerance in society, reduced aggression, strengthened social cohesion and the elimination of injustice, and (c) a fairer and more humane treatment of all people.
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Chérie Driver (Ireland) is an artist, anthropologist, lecturer in art theory and, since 2020, associate Head of Belfast School of Art. She is also the chair of Bbeyond, a performance art organisation in Northern Ireland, and a board member of Compassion City Belfast. Key projects include, several collaborative research projects in ‘art and its locations’, specializing in ‘art in contested spaces’.
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Frank Liddy (Ireland) has worked in the community care voluntary mental health sector for some twenty-five years and was the co-founding Director of the Belfast Mindfulness Centre. As an indigenous Belfast born practitioner he has been at the forefront of developing creative cross community mindfulness-based initiatives to communities / groups traumatised by the Northern Ireland troubles.
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The Africa Lectures
2023/24 | Subject to funding
Currently seeking partners across Africa
Currently seeking partners across Africa
The Democracy School (Germany), together with its partners, is currently developing a pan-African initiative to coincide with COP29 in order to set a spectacular sign that cannot be ignored and creatively draws attention to the challenges and crises arising from climate-induced migration.
The idea is to convene a large number of so-called Silent Lectures on the same date simultaneously across Africa during COP29, and to share both messages from and coverage of these gatherings with both the participants of COP29 and the wider world via ‘climate ambassadors’ on the one hand, and social media on the other. In parallel, a silent Solidarity Lecture would be held synchronously at COP29 itself.
There is great interest in this intervention in Africa. Expressions of interest have already been received from numerous local organisations in different countries and the number of potential African partners wishing to participate continues to grow.
The initiative has been conceived as a transcultural art project that aims to create a transcontinental social sculpture in a Beuysian sense through synchronized, yet locally grounded Silent Lectures of various sizes. Since this intervention offers an extremely wide spectrum of stakeholders, with vastly different cultural and political orientations/backgrounds, the opportunity to get involved creatively, and thus identify with the project personally, it will have a significant impact far beyond the art world itself. Out of this intervention a pan-African grassroots climate movement with global reach can develop and both find and raise its voice.
From a European perspective, the initiative provides a much-needed opportunity to proactively participate at various levels, together with our African partners, in an international dialogue on climate, migration and their consequences, and to jointly place these issues within the global context of COP29. In so doing, all sides will gain a much deeper understanding of the challenges Africa will face in coming years and thus will be better able to identify areas where international cooperation has the greatest positive impact from an economic, social and environmental point of view.
We are now looking for expressions of interest with regards to a number of positions from potential African partners and their organisations. In case of questions, please feel free to get in touch.