April; 2009
Issue
60
In This
Issue:
*Consul General's message
*American Days in Ruda Sląska
*Helena Modjeska Exhibit
*U.S. Challenge Contest
*American Documentaries
*Earth Day 2009
*Program in the U.S. for Teachers
*Non-violent Path to Social Change
Spring has finally arrived, and it is wonderful to see Krakow’s Market Square full of tourists, students and street musicians out enjoying the sunshine.
I had the pleasure to travel a bit around our consular district in March. We celebrated the 90th anniversary of Polish-American diplomatic relations in Wroclaw at our American Corner at the Lower Silesia Public Library on Wroclaw’s main square. We were delighted to host a delegation from Charlotte, North Carolina, Wroclaw’s sister city, as part of this event. Sister city relationships are a wonderful expression of the strong people-to people relations between Poland and the United States. I also visited the PZL Mielec plant (a subsidiary of Sikorsky Aircraft) for the first roll-out of the new Blackhawk helicopter cabins produced in Poland. These are world-class machines, and the Mielec plant is just one example of the sophisticated American production facilities that are located here in Poland.
Our year-long celebration of the 90th anniversary of Polish-American diplomatic relations continues in April with the opening of an exhibit about the renowned stage actress Helena Modjeska at the National History Museum in Krakow on April 8. Modjeska had a long and illustrious career both here in Europe and in the United States, and the exhibit promises to be a fascinating one.
We are very happy to be welcoming two documentary filmmakers from the United States, Chuck Workman and David O'Shields, who will be in Poland in April to talk about their award-winning works. This is the first time the State Department has organized a special program on documentary films, and we are delighted that Poland was one of the first countries selected to host such a program. More details on the program are included in this edition of Spotlight.
A group from Rocky Mountain National Park will be back in Poland in April to attend a national parks conference in Zakopane in celebration of Earth Day. Rocky Mountain Park and Tatra National Park Poland and Slovakia have expanded their cooperation since they signed a sister parks agreement last year. A delegation from Poland went to visit Rocky and other national parks this fall, and we look forward to hearing about their continuing cooperation as the parks discuss common challenges such as tourism management, recruiting volunteers and minimizing damage to park ecosystems.
Finally, in honor of Earth Day, which is April 22, the Consulate is continuing to improve its efforts to "green" our office building. Through reducing our energy usage, improving our recycling and reducing waste, we hope to become a truly green office.
Best wishes for the Easter holidays!
Anne Hall
Consul General
On April 2, 2009 an annual "American Days" event was held at the Ruda Slaska City Cultural Center in Niedurnego St. 69. The event, co-organized by the U.S. Consulate General and The Herbert Hoover High School, consisted of a ceremony granting awards to winners of several contests on America. Consul for Press and Cultural Affairs Susan Parker-Burns talked about the new president of the United States and showed a multimedia presentation of film clips about President Obama on YouTube.
Exhibit Helena Modrzejewska "Z miłości do sztuki" at Krakow Historical Museum
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Helena Modjeska (Helena Modrzejewska), the Krakow Historical Museum has prepared an exhibit presenting the life and work of this prominent actress who won the hearts and respect of both Polish and American theater audiences at the end of the 19th century.
The exhibit includes about 300 various artifacts connected with Helena Modjewska: pictures, painted portraits, theater posters, costumes and the actress’s personal objects. One of the most interesting parts of the exhibit is the collection of Modjeska’s mementoes from Bowers Museum in California.
The exhibition is under the honorary patronage of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Embassy of the United States in Warsaw and the U.S. Consulate General in Krakow. The exhibition will be at the Krzysztofory Palace in Rynek Głowny in Kraków from April 9 to September 20, and at the Theater Museum of Polish National Opera in Warsaw from October 2009 to January 2010. The opening of the exhibit will be held on April 8 at 5:00 pm at Krzysztofory Palace.
For more information, please see the website: www.mhk.pl/wystawy/pozycja_czasowe/245
photo courtesy of Muzeum Historyczne
Miasta Krakowa
Students from high schools in the Wroclaw region will test their knowledge of the United States during the second “U.S. Challenge” trivia contest at the American Corner in Wroclaw, Rynek 58 on April 15 at 12:00 p.m. Each participating school will send a team of three contestants to compete in a multi-media test of their knowledge of U.S. history, geography, culture, and politics. Last year the jury was impressed with students' knowledge of the United States and we hope that this year the competition will be also very challenging and enjoyable.
The American Documentary Showcase
On April 20 and 21 Krakow will host two prominent American documentary film makers: Chuck Workman and David O’ Shields. They will be accompanied by Betsy McLane, the former director of the International Documentary Association. While touring the Czech Republic and Poland they will show a set of prestigious contemporary U.S. documentaries. In Krakow "The People’s President" by Chuck Workman and "The America’s Lost Landscape" by David O’ Shields will be shown.
"The People’s President: Man, Myth and the Media," looks at the role of Hollywood film and network/cable television in both shaping and reflecting America’s views of the presidency. The producer and director Chuck Workman, has been involved in filmmaking and theater for over thirty years as an award - winning director, writer, editor, and producer. Workman's theatrical short, "Precious Images" (1986) won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely shown short in film history. The film show and the meeting with Chuck Workman will take place at the Sala Projekcyjna Wydziału Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej, Nowy Kampus UJ, ul. Łojasiewicza 4 at 3:00 p.m. on April 20.
"America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie" tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history. David O'Shields, the producer of the film, has been a working member of the production community since 1985. In addition to his work in public television, he has extensive experience as a cameraman and director in commercial television. This film will be shown to the audience of the National Parks Conference in Zakopane and will be followed by a meeting with David O'Shields.
The students of V Liceum Ogólnokształcące in Krakow will also have an opportunity to see both films and meet the filmmakers.
"America's Lost Landscape"
on location
David O'Shields (right)
International National Parks’ Conference to Celebrate Earth Day 2009
The U.S. Consulate General, together with the U.S. National Park Service and Tatra National Park, are organizing an international conference in Zakopane on “Renewable Sources of Energy for National Parks”. The conference will take place from April 20-23, 2009 and will be a forum to exchange ideas and experience among specialists from Polish and Slovak National Parks as well as from Rocky Mountain National Park. The conference is open to academics and practitioners who may register at e-mail address sekretariat@tpn.pl or sziobrowski@tpn.pl.
Six-week Program in the United States For High School Teachers
The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission are pleased to announce recruitment for the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program – a six-week program in the United States for high school teachers of either English as a Foreign Language, Social Science or Math and Sciences in the Spring or Fall 2010. Applications are due by April 27, 2009 to tea_poland@state.gov.
The Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State implemented by IREX, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization. The fellowship covers all costs associated with the program, including travel to the final interview, TOEFL testing, and J-1 visa support in Poland, plus round-trip airfare to the United States, housing, meals, insurance, local transportation, a pre-departure orientation, a closing seminar, and a book/professional development allowance.
You can download the full program description here:
http://poland.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/programoverview.pdf
Please send your questions to tea_poland@state.gov or call 022-504-2363
E-journal: Nonviolent Paths to Social Change
The past 30 years have seen a surge of nonviolent, “people power” movements around the world advancing human rights and toppling repressive rulers. Using information campaigns, boycotts, demonstrations, and other tactics, protesters have shown that nonviolent actions can be more powerful than armed insurrections in bringing about social change.
Recent science suggests that these non-violent movements are rooted deep in the human psyche.
War, for example, may not be a genetically determined part of human nature. Game theory suggests that getting along is not natural either,
but that under certain conditions people do learn to cooperate to make everyone better off.
Publication available: http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa/0309.html
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