The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs launched the Arts Envoy Intellectual Property Rights Program in December to highlight the importance of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) of visual and performing artists. 
 
The inaugural event was coordinated by the U.S. Embassy in Romania and featured workshops by American singer and songwriter Amanda Colleen Williams. During her three week visit to Romania, she met with university and law students, high schools, and artist rights organizations to creatively educate these audiences on intellectual property rights and how they impact the lives of artists. “We developed a unique approach to IP education as part of our Songpreneurs curriculum, which gives people a different perspective on why it is important to respect intellectual property rights for software, music, movies and other art forms,” said Williams.
 
According to one estimate, core copyright industries such as movies, books, video games, and newspapers have added $1.2 trillion in value to the economy of the United States. While copyrights represent just one aspect of intellectual property, this number demonstrates the importance of the development and enforcement of an effective system of protection for intellectual property.
 
The State Department has a long history of using artistic exchanges to advance IPR priorities. Arts and IPR are closely linked: in addition to the creative and business elements, arts exchanges are uniquely well suited to develop and cultivate contacts in the public and private sectors. Creating conversations around IPR increases the number of advocates who can promote the economic benefits of effective IPR protections. Arts Envoy, which is managed by ECA’s Cultural Programs Division, has set aside funds to support arts exchanges that focus on IPR protection.
 
To learn more about the Arts Envoy Program and various exchange programs supported by ECA please visit eca.state.gov.

https://share.america.gov/historic-church-bells-return-to-philippines/

The historic Bells of Balangiga are returning after more than a century to their home in a church in the province of Eastern Samar, Philippines.

Two of the three bells taken by U.S. troops in 1901 had been displayed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the third at a U.S. base in South Korea. Roman Catholic prelates and Philippine government officials had pressed for their return.

A crowd of over 700 cheered as the bells were unloaded from a military aircraft, uncrated, and presented to the Government of the Philippines at a ceremony on December 11. A second ceremony will be held on December 15 at the Parish of Balangiga.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, in a November 14 ceremony at F.E. Warren AFB, said to Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez: “Bear these bells home, back to their Catholic Church, confident that America’s ironclad alliance with the Philippines is stronger than ever.”

 

About the Cultural Antiquities Task Force

The Department of Defense is a member of the Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF). Created by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to combat antiquities trafficking in the United States and abroad. Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 95 domestic and international cultural property training programs. CATF is managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

On November 28th and 29th, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Film Independent, hosted the Global Media Makers (GMM) Summit in Cairo to celebrate the third year of the distinguished U.S. film mentoring program.
 
The Summit, which connected filmmakers from the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey with prominent leaders from the U.S. film industry, provided an opportunity for past GMM Fellows to reconnect with their peers and Mentors, as well as to explore future collaboration, discuss funding opportunities, and share best industry practices.
 
During the event, participants attended a number of professional workshops, including sessions on financing development and marketing and distribution, among others. Jana Wehbe, a Fellow from Lebanon, proposed an outline for a GMM network to better support the Fellows in their collaborations and efforts to find solutions to challenges they face in their countries. The Fellows will continue to strengthen this idea of a GMM network via an online group that will oversee research and actions items to achieve their mission.
 
The Mentors that participated in the Summit were Len Amato, President of HBO Films; Laura Kim, Senior Vice President of Film Marketing at Participant Media; Producer Effie T. Brown (Dear White People); Producer Alix Madigan (Winter’s Bone); Elissa Federoff, film distributer; and Director, Producer, and Screenwriter Gregory Nava (El Norte, Selena).
 
Launched in 2016, GMM is a cultural exchange program that brings filmmakers from the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey to Los Angeles to participate in a six-week intensive residency. Throughout this experience, filmmakers develop their projects under the mentorship of leading U.S. film industry representatives. In the last three years, 180 Mentors have served GMM through various workshops and individual meetings, as well as travelling to the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey to present international workshops that have impacted over 500 participants.
 
GMM is supported through a partnership between the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Film Independent, a non-profit arts organization that champions independent filmmakers.

Post by Stephanie Klein of The Sader Law Firm

The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) hosted four delegates from Serbia in hopes of boosting the country’s financial infrastructure through bankruptcy. The Serbian government is in the process of creating fresh bankruptcy policies, and the delegates sought to learn from related legal practices in the United States.

With business bankruptcies already underway thanks to the evolving new system, the next phase of development in Serbian bankruptcy policy is now focused on businesses financially backed by sole proprietorships.

As Serbia continues to grow and formalize its records and banking laws, the delegates were especially interested in exploring what a mature bankruptcy system can provide not only for Serbian business, but for individual citizens. In a meeting with The Sader Law Firm in Kansas City, Missouri, Assistant Minister of Economy Marko Radovic noted how the inclusion of individually-owned businesses into Serbia’s bankruptcy policy could pave the way for consumer bankruptcies-- an area of policy he hopes to prioritize soon. Topics related to student loan forgiveness and other personal bankruptcy matters were a highlight of the session.

The delegates also visited the US Bankruptcy Court and met with both lawmakers and litigators during their five-day visit to Kansas City, which was hosted locally by non-profit Global Ties KC.

Radovic, along with fellow delegates, spent a total of three weeks in the United States, also making stops in Washington D.C., New York and Reno, Nevada. Radovic believes the trip will inform the next steps in bankruptcy policy for Serbia, and marked new areas of knowledge and experience in bankruptcy law for himself and his colleagues.

“Participation in the IVLP exchange was a unique opportunity, “he said. “Visits to various cities in the USA gave us the chance to feel the spirit of the U.S. bankruptcy system, especially as it concerns small and medium-sized enterprises.


J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Chair, Ambassador Jeffrey L. Bleich (ret.), and Chairman of the University of Arkansas System’s Board of Trustees, Mark Waldrip, sign a joint statement of cooperation, flanked by Fulbright Scholars and a university choir.


On November 14-15, 2018 the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board held its 281st quarterly board meeting at the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville.

As part of its ongoing effort to work with the U.S. higher education institutions, the Fulbright Board agreed to a joint statement of cooperation with the University of Arkansas that affirms the partnership between the Fulbright Board and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. To recognize the Fulbright Program’s history and continued development, as well the unique relationship with the University of Arkansas as the hometown and university of the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright Board intends to collaborate with the University of Arkansas to collect and preserve records about the program and participants, to orient new Board members, and to periodically host future Board meetings.

During the meeting, the Board re-elected Chair Jeffrey L. Bleich and Vice-Chair Mark Pryor as officers for 2019. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs, Caroline Casagrande, provided the Board with an update on the Fulbright Program and the strategic goals of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Family members, former colleagues, and staff of the late Senator J. William Fulbright shared their memories and insights about the statesman. Through the university archives, FFSB members accessed the papers, writings, and memorabilia of Senator Fulbright and the Fulbright Program. The Fulbright Board Members and State Department officials heard the stories of Fulbright Scholars and alumni, and celebrated International Education Week with a reception for international students and Fulbright Scholars.

 

On November 14, students from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the U.S. participated in a global pitch competition at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor. The students are participating in the William Davidson Institute’s MENA-Michigan Initiative for Global Action through Entrepreneurship (M²GATE), which virtually connects undergraduate participants from the University with peers in Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia to find entrepreneurial solutions to social challenges in the Middle East and North Africa region. The project is supported through ECA’s Stevens Initiative.

Through a virtual exchange, the teams developed social entrepreneurship projects and complementary pitches over a semester with the help of coaches, mentors, and social enterprise entrepreneurs from MENA and Michigan. Only three out of 90 teams advanced to the final round, affording them the opportunity to travel to Michigan to participate in the competition where one team would be crowned winner.

In front of a live audience and panel of judges, joint U.S. and MENA teams pitched solutions to a number of challenges within their countries including recycling, waste management, and a plan to enhance soft skills for youth to aid in professional development. Team EcoMENA, comprised of students from Egypt and Michigan undergrads, was selected as the winning team. Their project featured a plan to work with the Zabaleen community (roughly translated as garbage collectors) in Cairo to help them transform recycled materials they collect into jewelry and other items that can be sold for profit. This would greatly reduce the amount of plastics and metal burned or dumped into landfills and help the Zabaleen earn extra income.

The students participating in M²GATE are part of the Stevens Initiative. The Initiative, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Aspen Institute, is an international effort to grow and enhance the field of virtual exchange, and to build career and global competence skills for young people in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa.

To learn more about the Stevens Initiative, please click here.

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia William A. Heidt and Cambodia’s Minister of Culture, Her Excellency Phoeung Sackona, signed a joint statement recognizing the recent extension of the cultural property agreement between the United States and Cambodia during a ceremony on November 6, 2018 at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. The agreement, also called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), between the U.S. government and the Royal Government of Cambodia allows for the restriction on U.S. imports of certain categories of Cambodian archaeological material for five additional years, until 2023.

Since first entering into an MOU in 2003, the United States and Cambodia have partnered to reduce the threat of pillaging and trafficking of irreplaceable artifacts representing Cambodia’s centuries-old cultural heritage. For example, multiple domestic and regional law enforcement trainings have increased the capacity of Cambodian heritage police and site managers to protect archaeological sites and work with neighboring countries on cross-border trafficking. Tools and public education campaigns developed by U.S. and Cambodian heritage experts have heightened awareness of the MOU and the importance of preserving Cambodia’s national patrimony.

“This MOU has a very technical name, but it is intended to reduce incentive for the pillage of irreplaceable archaeological material representing Cambodia’s rich cultural heritage,” said Ambassador Heidt. “In simpler terms, it discourages looting, and ensures that looted artifacts are returned to Cambodia.”

Also on November 6, the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh announced a new Ambassadors Fund project to conserve the Northern Staircase at the 11th-century Temple of Preah Vihear, one of Cambodia’s premier UNESCO World Heritage sites. The project includes a number of emergency measures to address extensive erosion and destabilization of the temple’s monumental masonry staircase.

“This work is important,” Ambassador Heidt said. “For the United States, it helps demonstrate the value we place on your heritage and our friendship. For Cambodia, it preserves cultural sites and objects that have historical significance, while also helping Cambodian archaeologists and workers gain the skills they need to continue preserving your nation’s rich heritage.”

U.S. support for cultural heritage projects overseas through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation yields many positive and lasting benefits. Such support contributes towards post-disaster and post-conflict recovery efforts in some of the world’s most desperate communities. It satisfies U.S. treaty and other bilateral obligations and creates opportunities for economic development where long-term high unemployment and extreme poverty are the norm. In strife-ridden states especially, it counters extremist interpretations of U.S. interests and demonstrates American values in action.

Twenty six community and faith leaders from around the world arrived in the United States to begin an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on interfaith dialogue and religious freedom. The participants, representing different religious and faith-based organizations, as well as secular institutions, will engage in discussions with one another and their American counterparts to promote interfaith dialogue and explore ways to ensure the rights of religious minorities are protected.

Promoting and protecting religious freedom is a key foreign policy priority for this administration.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo first announced this IVLP at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in July, highlighting how countries that respect religious freedom are more prosperous, peaceful, and secure.

The IVLP began in Washington, D.C. and participants will travel in smaller groups for meetings and events in Indiana, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin before the program closing in California. Each group will examine the impact of religion on public and political life in the United States, explore the role of religious leaders in communities, and demonstrate the U.S. tradition of separation of religion and state.

On October 18, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ Sports Diplomacy Division received the prestigious “Diplomacy Action of the Year Award” from Peace and Sport, an NGO based in Monaco devoted to sport for social change, at the organization’s annual forum in Rhodes, Greece. The award recognizes individuals, programs, and organizations that propel world-wide social change through sport.

The Department was recognized specifically for its work in collaboration with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Sport, Peace, and Society on the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP), its flagship professional development sports exchange program on women’s empowerment and disability rights.

Rinor Gashi a participant in the 2017 Sport for Community: Global Sports inclusion advocate and leader of Kosovo’s Wheelchair Basketball Federation, accepted the award on behalf of the GSMP. Gashi participated in the 2017 GSMP Sport for Community exchange, where he was mentored by Doug Garner, and assistant director of campus recreation for adapted sports at the University of Texas at Arlington. Participating in the GSMP allowed Gashi to return home and collaborate with the Basketball Federation of Kosovo to establish the country’s first wheelchair basketball federation.

Since its inception in 2012, the Global Sports Mentoring Program has worked with a strong roster of organizations such as espnW, the National Hockey League, National Ability Center, Burton Snowboards, Ability 360, and other partners to create a global network of influencers who strive to promote positive change in their communities through sports.

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