4. Public Engagement 
 

Please provide a detailed description of your public event(s).

The culminating events will include a screening of the 30-minute video titled East Bay Stories of Empathy.  It will be projected with a digital LCD projector in the main art gallery at the RAC which holds 150 people.  After the screening there will be discussion in a questions and answer format with the academic advisor, filmmaker and a selection of the people whose stories were featured.  After the event, attendees will be able to view the art hanging in the gallery and continue their individual discussion.

In addition, the NPA Empathy project will be holding an event of public art in October of 2009, and some of the initial short empathy stories and completed interview workshop art will be presented at this forum.

Provide us with the tentative date and venue for your event.

The location of the event is the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California. The exhibit of art created in the interview workshops will be on display from May 14 - 29, 2010 in the RAC small gallery. The opening reception and culminating event with community screening and public discussion will be held in the RAC large gallery on Saturday, May 15.

Describe how you will archive any stories your project will collect and how any project-produced materials will be made accessible to the public after the end of the project.

Material related to the project will be made available through the project website.  All the project’s stories, videos, photos, process, workshop plans, curriculum, grant application, discussions, etc. will be accessible at this website. The 40 short video stories and interviews will be uploaded to a Youtube Empathy Stories channel for permanent viewing. The videos will be embedded into, and have links from, the website. The 30-minute video will be available online from Google Video. A high resolution version will be available on DVD for showing at other events. All taped and edited video will be archived to hard drives and available for any other future uses.  We anticipate discussions on the theme of empathy will continue long after the completion of the project.

Describe how your event will foster understanding between people and encourage their engagement in community life.

The final video will be available online as well as on DVD so that it can be shown at future events to foster discussion on the theme of empathy. Our volunteers have already committed to finding appropriate venues for showings and discussions of the products of this project. For example, one possible venue is the local El Cerrito movie theater which shows locally made films and hosts discussion salons. We are also aware of churches and social organizations, especially those that are our partner organizations, which are interested in such a video to show to their members.