UPDATE: A dialogue about dialogue: Laurie Norton Moffatt and the Four Freedoms Forums

[Bill Densmore]

For several years, Laurie Norton Moffatt has been thinking and writing
about the role of public institutions in creating and fostering community.
Moffatt is director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.,
the living repository of works by the iconic American illustrator.

Rockwell's World War II-era drawing of a series of covers for the Saturday
Evening Post, "The Four Freedoms," inspired Norton Moffatt last fall to
begin a series of three community town meetings at the museum, to foster
"Can We Talk" conversations about important civic topics.

She didn't decide the topics herself, she convened a group of citizens to
do so -- and they chose three themes: (1) Sickness, Wellness and Social
Responsibility, (2) Freedom from Want: Food, Farmers and Families and (3)
Four Freedoms for All? A Community Dialogue about Immigration.

The events proceeded -- as would a New England Town Meeting --
respectfully moderated, with any attendee free to step to the microphone
and say their piece (or peace?) on the topic.

Norton Moffatt will join us at "Beyond Books" and at an appropriate point
she'll discuss how the "Four Freedoms Forums" worked and how the concept
might be adapted by other museums and libraries.

READ MORE AT:
http://tinyurl.com/rockwell-moffatt

-------------------------------------
Bill Densmore
co-convenor, Journalism That Matters
director, Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst
CELL: 413-458-8001
dens...@journ.umass.edu

"BEYOND BOOKS: News, literacy, democracy and America's Libraries"
Assessing the common mission of journalists and librarians
April 6-7, 2011 / MIT Center for Future Civic Media
REGISTER NOW: http://www.biblionews.org

[Jack Harris]

Perhaps we can explore how to move these dialogues out into the wider community as an ongoing process.