Designing for Empathy® SUMMIT 2023 - PRELIMINARY AGENDA

10 AM - 12 PM

Location: THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART

Inside the Rubin Museum of Art’s Mandala Lab

Tim McHenry

Deputy Executive Director

Rubin Museum of Art

Jamie Lawyer

Chief Experience Officer 

Director of Visitor Experience and Interpretation

Rubin Museum of Art

How can art museums be spaces for social, emotional, and ethical learning? In 2021, the Rubin Museum of Art opened The Mandala Lab, an interactive and sensory space inspired by a Tibetan Buddhist Mandala. It invites visitors to explore how their emotions influence their perception of the world. On this talk and tour, learn how the Rubin Museum’s Mandala Lab infused Tibetan Buddhism, artistic imagination, principles of wellbeing, and groundbreaking science into its installation. In this 2 hour session, participants will have an opportunity to explore the Mandala Lab and learn the frameworks which inspired it. After a conversation and tour with project Lead Tim McHenry (Deputy Director/Chief Programmatic Officer) and collaborator, Jamie Lawyer (Chief Experience Officer/Director of Visitor Experience & Interpretation), participants will engage in a conversation to consider how these ideas can be converted into a toolkit to be used by broader cultural professionals.

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12 - 1:30 PM | Lunch (no host)

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2 - 5 PM

Location: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES CAREER DESIGN LAB

Narrative Medicine: Theory and Practice

Louise Rosen, Senior Associate Dean of Administrative Affairs and Communications, 

School of Professional Studies

Lecturer, School of International and Public Affairs

Columbia University

Danielle Spencer, PhD

Narrative Medicine Program

Columbia University

Craig Irvine, PhD, Co-Director

Narrative Medicine Program

Columbia University

Narrative medicine recognizes aesthetic capabilities as fundamental instruments necessary for empathic relations with others. Acts of perception and attention ignite narrative practice. We grow toward our powers to attend to others through the avenues of close reading, deep listening, and concentrated witnessing of works of art. This session will provide an introduction to the theory and methods of narrative medicine, applicable to both clinical and non-clinical settings. Lectures will explore how stories and art work, with a particular focus on why creativity is central to the practice of empathy. The workshop portion of the session will provide experience in the narrative medicine practices of close reading, short prompted writing, and discussion.

Location: SUNY FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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8:45 - 9:30 AM | Light Breakfast

Location: Living Room/Terrace

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9:30 - 9:45 AM 

Location: Board Room

Welcome Remarks by Dr. Joyce Brown, FIT President

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Welcome Remarks by Summit Co-Chairs

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9:45 - 10:30 AM 

Location: Board Room

Designing for Empathy -  Introduction & Overview

Elif Gokcigdem, PhD, Author & Founding President

ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy

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10:30 - 11:15 AM

Location: Board Room

Restoring Connection: How Learning to Empathize with Animals can Bring Us Closer to Nature and Each Other

Jim Wharton, PhD, Vice President

Conservation Engagement & Learning

Seattle Aquarium

Sarah Brenkert, Principal Evaluator

Seattle Aquarium

Cameron Whitley, PhD, Associate Professor

Western Washington University

The world is becoming increasingly digital and detached, impelling human beings toward isolation and anthropocentrism at a time when a connection to nature is needed more than ever. We can send an electronic message across the ocean or answer any question with a couple of clicks…but we don’t know where our food comes from or where our waste goes. We believe that cultivating empathy for animals and learning to see nature through a lens of oneness can help bring us back into relationship with the environment - and each other. In this session, we'll explore what it means to use critical anthropomorphism to strengthen perspective-taking and empathic concern for animals. We'll also discuss the powerful implications of empathy - not just as a tool for bio-conservation, but as a catalyst for healing in very human contexts.

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11:15 AM - 12 PM

Location: Board Room

Connection to Humanity: Challenges and Opportunities for Inclusion, Climate, and Democracy

Susie Wilkening, Principal

Wilkening Consulting

Our country and our planet are facing significant challenges, from climate change to extreme nationalism to civility. What binds us together as human beings? What makes people care about what happens to others whom they will never meet? Recent findings from the 2022 and 2023 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers suggest that there are very different attitudes among museum-goers (and the broader public) about our human connections and the role of museums in considering empathy and compassion to address the challenges our planet and humanity face. We’ll explore those findings and discuss how museums can effectively explore these issues ... as well as the landmines that may lie in their path during this contentious time. 

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12 - 12:50 PM | Group Lunch

Location: Living Room/Terrace

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10 minute transition to Haft Auditorium

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 ALL AFTERNOON EVENTS ARE AT THE HAFT AUDITORIUM

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1 - 1:05 PM 

Location: Haft Auditorium

Welcome Remarks by

Brenda Cowan, Professor

Exhibition & Experience Design

SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology

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1:05 - 1:20 PM 

ALL CAMPUS  TALK:

Designing for Empathy: Why is it Essential to our Humanness & our Planet?

Elif Gokcigdem, PhD, Author & Founding President

ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy

Humanity is at a crossroads: it is imperative that we find ways to develop care and concern for one another, and our interconnected existence. Empathy, our ability to imagine what it might feel like to be the other, is a lens of perception, through which we may choose to view the world and our place within. A focus on the many nuances of empathy from multidisciplinary and multicultural perspectives is necessary for our understanding of what empathy can be for humanity and our world. A multifaceted, and cross-disciplinary collaborative approach to empathy-building can enable us to develop the most relevant, healing, and ethical empathy-building solutions that would benefit the whole —all of humanity, our kin that we share our world with, and our planet. 

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1:20 - 2:10 PM 

ALL CAMPUS  TALK:

Can the Arts Increase Empathy & Kindness?

Sara Konrath, PhD, Associate Professor 

Director of Interdisciplinary Program for Empathy and Altruism Research

Indiana University

Empathy involves feeling compassion for others and understanding their perspectives, and it helps to inspire kind behaviors like giving, volunteering, and helping. This presentation will first review some evidence-based strategies that increase empathy and kindness, and will then share the latest scientific insights on the role of the arts.

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2:15 - 3 PM

ALL CAMPUS  TALK:

AI Creation Story

Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Chair & Associate Professor

Artificial Intelligence and the Arts, Digital World Institute

University of Florida

Throughout my artistic career I have found ways to engage with different aspects of emerging technologies. One of the most significant technologies to emerge in the past decade or so has been the array of models and tools that are grouped under the name AI – artificial intelligence. In this talk I’d like to explain how I’ve approached some of the ideas and issues of artificial intelligence as an artist and as an indigenous person. But first I want to step back and take a meta-look at the ways our culture figures and receives AI, and what kinds of stories we tell about it.

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3 - 4 PM

ALL CAMPUS  WORKSHOP:

Expanded Listening – The Museum Experience as a Key to Communal Formation 

Andrew Nemr, Tap Dance Artist

Nemr Institute

In my work I have found expanded listening to be one of three key attributes, alongside communal imagination and common context, that need to be present for the experience of synchronicity to be available. Expanded listening is the idea of learning to listen for the sounds furthest away from you. Imagine a community in which members are actively listening for the stories that are furthest away from their own? In this workshop participants will experience an embodied exercise designed to encounter the experience of expanded listening, a framework for communal formation (based on the work of Dallas Willard), and a way of applying these ideas directly to the museum experience. 

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4 - 4:45 PM

ALL CAMPUS - STUDENT-LED PANEL DISCUSSION:

The Meaning of Empathy in Practice

Hosted by: 

Claire Caverly, Akshata Chitnis, Sakshi Lokhande

FIT Exhibition & Experience Design, Graduate Students 

Panelists:

Jim Wharton, PhD, Vice President

Conservation Engagement & Learning

Seattle Aquarium

Monique Davis, Director 

Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE)

Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer

Mississippi Museum of Art

Elif Gokcigdem, PhD, Author & Founding President

ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy

Location: SUNY FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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8:45 - 9:15 AM | Light Breakfast

Location: Living Room/Terrace

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9:20 - 9:40 AM

Location: Board Room

Building Empathy through Art-Inspired Meditation

Donna Jonte, Head of Experiential Learning

The Phillips Collection

Aparna Sadananda, PhD, Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher/Trainer

The Phillips Collection

In this interactive session led by mindfulness teacher Aparna Sadananda and museum educator Donna Jonte, we will explore a work of art from The Phillips Collection through close looking, inquiry, and guided meditation. Reflecting on these experiences can help us discover invisible stories connecting our individual present to the collective past and future. We hope that this art-inspired meditation will encourage perspective taking and promote empathic action. 

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9:40 - 10 AM

Location: Board Room

Arts, Emotions and Creativity: A Course for Adolescents at Centro Botín 

Marina Pascual, Head of Creativity Development Programs

Centro Botín

This course for adolescents (six sessions) was developed to teach emotional intelligence skills (using emotion to facilitate thought and understanding emotions) and creativity skills (idea generation and idea evaluation), using visual art as a medium. Art-based activities in the workshop were specially designed to respond to developmental needs in adolescence with the focus on identity development. The workshop used both art appreciation in the exhibitions and art-making activities to help enhance emotion and creativity skills, and support adolescent identity exploration and development. We started to do this course at Centro Botín when it opened in 2017 with very good results. After the course the adolescents showed a more positive attitude towards changing directions or techniques when working on tasks requiring creativity and a greater belief that creativity can be improved through practice and training. Furthermore, they have higher ability to use metaphors, describing emotions and acknowledge thoughts and feelings while observing a piece of artwork. In this way they develop their empathy, among other things, which is fundamental for human relationships. Now, during 2023, we are doing the impact study involving one hundred of adolescents from different secondary schools of Santander.

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10 - 10:45 AM

Location: Board Room

Fostering Empathy through Making

Anne Fullenkamp, Senior Director, Creative Experiences

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Noelle Conover, Executive Director

Matt’s Maker Space

When the pandemic forced remote communication and social distancing, the importance of in-person interactions for meaningful social connections, especially for digitally literate children, became more clear than ever. Now, we recognize physical engagement and tangible activities are essential to honing soft skills like communication and empathy. Makerspaces have become the places in museums, schools and other informal learning environments where people of diverse ages, abilities and learning styles can come together to practice these soft skills, using STEAM content as the framework. At a time when societal anxieties are high, hands-on creative activities can provide the basis for more empathetic interactions with our families, friends, and neighbors.

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10:45 - 11:20 AM

Location: Board Room

An Empathy Ecosystem: Lessons Learned from Intentional Collaboration in Zoos and Aquariums

Marta Burnet, PhD, Director, Advancing Empathy

Woodland Park Zoo

With the support of a generous donor, Woodland Park Zoo has established and supported the Advancing Conservation through Empathy for Wildlife (ACE for Wildlife) Network – a community of practice that is composed of 20 accredited zoos and aquariums in seven states since 2019. Much like an ecosystem, we are an interconnected community made up of a variety of contributors. The organizations within our Network run the gamut from small to large, urban to rural, non-profit to government sponsored – and everything in between. We have benefited from our nexus of relationships, whether it’s mutual support through struggles or sharing resources to help each other function more efficiently and boost resilience. This talk will share lessons learned through supporting empathy practices across a self-governing network, providing technical assistance to peer organizations, and working with internal and external evaluators to better understand what works, why it works, and what it can tell us about the role that empathy can play in zoos and other informal education institutions.

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10 minute break

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11:30 AM - 12:15 PM

Location: Board Room

The Healing Power of Empathy in Medicine

Maura Minsky, Director, The Empathy Project 

NYU Langone

Dr. Jennifer Adams, Director, Center for Empathy in Medicine

NYU Langone

The Empathy Project (TEP) will present an overview of their innovative work, including screening one of their short films. A group ideation session will follow addressing TEP's goal of establishing empathy as a core value within the construct of a large medical institution. TEP’s audience is 50K+ employees across a medical institution, and more specifically the senior staff who will need to model empathy if this is to get traction. Here are some questions that might be shared: How have you changed the culture of your institution so that empathy is a central organizing principle or value?  What kind of environment encourages a culture of empathy? What have you found to be the most receptive action you’ve asked of your audience in terms of empathy specifically, or team-building? What lessons have you learned about what NOT to do?

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12:15 - 1:15 PM | Group Lunch

Location: Living Room/Terrace

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10 minute transition to the Haft Auditorium

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ALL AFTERNOON EVENTS ARE AT THE HAFT AUDITORIUM

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1:25 - 1:30 PM

Location: Haft Auditorium

Welcome Remarks by

Brenda Cowan, Professor

Exhibition & Experience Design

SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology

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1:30 - 2:15 PM

ALL CAMPUS  TALK:

Cognitive Effects of Art: Uncovering the Experience of Meaning

 
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, PhD, Senior Research Scientist Director of Creativity & Emotions LabYale Center for Emotional Intelligence, The Yale University

Pablo Tinio, PhD, Director, Creativity & Aesthetics LabMontclair State University

Despite a long history and vast scholarship on the psychology of art, researchers have yet to adequately characterize and understand the most meaningful aspects of aesthetic experiences. These include realizations about oneself, about one’s relationships with others, and about one’s place in society and the world. In this research, we examine the aspects of the experience of art that museum visitors identify as personally meaningful. We also consider the potential implications of our findings on museum practice. 

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2:15 - 3 PM

ALL CAMPUS  TALK:

Culture----Stories-------Shift (A Simple Theory of Change)

Monique Davis, Director 

Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE)

& Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer

Mississippi Museum of Art

“The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. This truth applies both to individuals and institutions.”
― Michael Margolis

Stories are embedded in the DNA of humans and have been used to communicate the fullness of humanity, the heroic journey, the triumph of the human spirit and all variations in between. As many museums strive to become more human centered, I suggest that embedding storytelling into our operational DNA is the magic we need in these times. How do Museums acknowledge our colonial underpinnings and imagine new stories that center belonging, healing, and resilience? How do Museums become more accessible and communicate with words that are understood by people without a PhD in art history? How do Museums become more democratic in the types of knowledge they value?  Stories large and small can help us answer these questions and ask better ones. The Mississippi Museum of Art is considering these questions as we continue to live into our mission of connecting Mississippi to the world, and the power of art to the power of community. I will share the ways we currently use storytelling with the intention that they will support you in planting the seeds that can create a culture of storytelling, belonging and change.

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3 - 3:45 PM

ALL CAMPUS  PANEL DISCUSSION:

Flourishing in Museums

Moderator: 

Brenda Cowan, Professor

Exhibition & Experience Design

SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology

Panelists:

Anne Fullenkamp, Senior Director

Creative Experiences

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Elif Gokcigdem, PhD, Author & Founding President

ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy

Kiersten Latham, President & CEO

Sauder Village

Andrew Nemr, Tap Dance Artist

Nemr Institute

The museum field is poised for change and growth as it never has been before. Societal unrest and reckonings, climate change, and challenges to museum conventions have brought us to a moment in time when positive and empathetic movements in the workplace and community are opportune and necessary. This panel discussion will focus on the practical and theoretical intentions of what it is to flourish in the museum setting, providing illustrative examples from the profession as well as the recent scholarship underpinning the multiple meanings and intentions of positive research and practice.

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3:45 - 4:15 PM

ALL CAMPUS - DESIGNING FOR EMPATHY STUDENT AWARDS CEREMONY

Please visit: "Student Awards" section for more information.

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4:15 - 5 PM

Location: Board Room (TBD)

REFLECTIONS & COMMITMENTS 

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6 - 10 PM

EMPATHY SUMMIT SOCIAL 

at  THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART - K2 Lounge 

(Summit Speakers & Delegates only)