Aspen Romania Public Programmes

Aspen Institute Romania public conferences and events provide a commons for people to share ideas; a set of matching publications follow as well.

Designed to address key issues of the day the set of Public Programmes builds upon and dovetails in the activities under the Aspen Romania Policy programm. It includes a variety of different activities some truly public and open to large audiences while others are more specialised and destined for smaller audiences. From open round-tables and conferences to Aspen Romania speaker series and book launches the public may find events that not only offer a glimpse into the complex policy activity of the Institute and its members but also allow for a wider promotion of its values based activity in the search of the philosophical "good society".

Several different categories are included in the Institute's Public Programmes:

Society: Under this heading the public will find opportunities to participate in debates and dialogues around specific issues highly relevant to Romania and its region in the field of democratization, human rights, including promotion of cultural and minority rights, development issues related to urbanization of the societies, the effect of EU integration processes, language and identity, environment the relationship between contemporary culture and nature etc. Also represented are several annual events that allow members of the Aspen Institute Romania to invite guests, or to create fundraising opportunities for civic and CSR objectives. Aspen Institute Romania  has established a series of partnerships with other like-minded organisations (like the Robert Kennedy Foundation, AMCHAM, FIC, AOAR, etc.) both public and private in order to create meaningful content and highly relevant events. Key among these events are Aspen Speaker series. This monthly events invite diverse Romanian and foreign personalities from business, politics, academia or the arts to address each an issue of particular relevance in a seminal way. Topics for 2010 include: NATO's reform, the challenge to the existing social  policy system of EU members and issues of sustainability, cutting edge genetic research and the future of medicine from an ethical perspective, educating for social reform, what role for Christianity in the "secular" EU, etc.

Arts and Culture: This is a special track of Aspen Romania events specially designed with a view of supporting and promoting the arts as a most important element in the makeup of the "good society". Fertilizing debates, promoting dialogue and questioning stereotypes art and culture are a very important and hence inherently difficult instruments to handle in the exploration and modeling of this society. As artists abhor instrumentalization of their art, the idea is to offer a free platform where the only constraints are high quality standards and a certain relevance to our activity. Thus art and culture events are often attached to other Aspen Policy or Public events but they can be stand alone. Key elements to be represented are the dialogue of cultures, multiculturalism and interferences with a non exclusive focus on contemporary cultural phenomena and young artists. From jazz to classical music and from photography to film all art forms are welcome.

Book Launches: Both books published by Aspen Institute members and books deemed to be relevant for the Institutes activity and values are regularly presented to the public in events that mix interesting debates and opportunities to meet relevant intellectual contributors and their ideas.

Publications: Aspen Institute Romania publishes regularly in electronic or physical from reports, interviews, articles, etc.. Often a byproduct of Policy and Public events most are to be found in PDF format in the members area of the site.