A gathering of Ivy League professors, working-class advocates, international performers and local community members began converging on campus Tuesday for this year’s Ray Smith Symposium.

The three-day event – entitled ‘Art Works: The Role of Arts in U.S. Workers’ Struggles’ – will run tthrough Thursday and celebrate the interaction between the arts and the labor movement.

‘This isn’t like most academic conferences,’ said Steve Parks, an associate professor in the Writing Program and one of the symposium’s directors. ‘So many conferences are three people reading a paper to 20 people in the audience. We have musicians, performers, artists, students, faculty, union members, community members. It’s actually going to be interesting. We’re bringing different ways of talking to the same space.’

The Ray Smith Symposium is a traditional program put on by The College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council, but this year’s theme is unique. It is the brainchild of Parks, anthropology professor John Burdick, instructor Diane Swords and graduate student Fethi Keles, all who began discussing the project eight months ago.

‘We were talking about how cultural politics support labor struggles, which led us to question the role of writing, performance and art in the union struggle,’ Parks said.

The project developed during the next eight months, as Parks, Burdick, Swords and Keles began recruiting musicians, writers, professors, union leaders, union members, nonprofit boards and other experts to take part in the program. Their intention was not only to document the role of the arts in the labor movement, but also to create a forum for discussion and community interaction. To this end, the programming includes a play by Syracuse University SEIU 200 Workers and a series of readings by working-class community members, as well as academic discussions on labor and the arts.

Esther Cohen, executive director of the Bread and Roses cultural program, will give the keynote address at 7 p.m. today in Stolkien Auditorium. Like many of the Art Works participants, Cohen has encouraged working people to document their lives through art. Her foundation, Bread and Roses, produces plays, poetry programs, street fairs, documentaries, concerts and art exhibits with the members of the New York Health and Human Service Union, 1199/SEIU.

Parks hopes that the symposium will present a different view of both art and society, ultimately helping students grow as individuals.

‘Populations will come together that we don’t usually see on campus,’ he said. ‘I hope students take away a deeper sense of how their education is connected to the economic plight of the greater population. I hope they ask themselves how they can contribute to the civic good.’

Nick Pollard, a labor activist in the United Kingdom and a presenter at the event, echoed Parks’ wish.

‘It’s a crucial thing to think about,’ he said. ‘How does this stuff (that students learn in class) relate to the global political picture? When you graduate, what do you do with your degree? What good will you do? How do you pay it back?’

The symposium is funded by a number of on- and off-campus organizations, including SEIU Local 200 United, SEIU 1199, the Program for the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, the Gifford Foundation and the anthropology department and Writing Program. Chancellor Nancy Cantor has also praised the project, contributing funds to what Parks calls an excellent example of Scholarship in Action.

A full schedule of events is available on the Art Works Web site, http://artworks.syr.edu.

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Published on April 22, 2008 at 12:00 pm