Winter Buzz Breakfast Series Gets Underway Jan. 27 with Virtual Discussion of Removing Confederate Monuments

The 2021 Winter Buzz Breakfast series, hosted by Leadership Asheville and the Asheville Area Arts Council, focuses on Equity in Creative Placemaking. This approach uses arts strategies to involve those that live, work, and play in a community, and give them a voice in the urban design process. This four-part series will include presentations from nationally recognized experts followed by Q&A moderated by Darin Waters, special assistant to the chancellor at UNC Asheville and executive producer of The Waters and Harvey Show, and Aisha Adams, founder and executive producer of The Asheville View. All four events in the series are available online, free to everyone via Remo, with pre-registration required, and links provided at https://leadershipasheville.unca.edu/events/2021-winter-buzz-breakfast/.

The series begins Jan. 27 with a look at the removal of Confederate monuments with special guest Mitch Landrieu, former Mayor of New Orleans, and author of In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. The second event, on Feb. 18, features Paul Farber, the director of Monument Lab, and senior research scholar at the Center for Public Art & Space at the University of Pennsylvania. This discussion will look at factors that should be considered when selecting public art and monuments.

The third event, on March 18, will feature Maria R. Jackson, Institute Professor at the Studio for Creativity, Place and Equitable Communities at Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. Jackson is a national leader in the Equitable Creative Placemaking movement.

The final event, on April 15, concludes with a panel of local experts and will focus on local public art initiatives, exploring what Equitable Creative Placemaking could look like for Asheville. Panelist include:

• Katie Cornell, executive director, Asheville Area Arts Council
• Stephanie Monson Dahl, strategic development program director, City of Asheville
• Cortina Caldwell, adé Project founder
• Sekou Coleman, executive director, Asheville Writers in the Schools and Community

Presenting Sponsor for the 2021 Winter Buzz Breakfast series is The Van Winkle Law Firm. Additional funding for this series is provided by Explore Asheville and the North Carolina Arts Council.