The final year of the Global Initiative also inspired a stellar series of public programs. The free “New Ideas on Globalization” lecture series—copresented with the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts—brought five leading scholars to the Walker to discuss the process of globalization from historical, artistic, cultural, political, and economic perspectives. In the future, we will continue to work with community partners to develop civic dialogues around these and other issues that impinge upon our collective and individual lives. We learned that the public is looking for places to participate in a more holistic sense of community, where debate is possible and safe; the lecture by Tariq Ali on new definitions of war and empire that we presented as part of this series drew an overflow audience of more than 560 people, many of whom had to watch it on an Internet feed.

The Global Initiative also profoundly affected the Global Advisory Committee. Baraka, a curator and producer of the World Festival at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and former director of Africa Exchange, wrote after the final meeting at the Walker in May: “I think we all went away from the weekend with both a sense of closure with our four years of exchange, as well as a sense of the possibilities for maintaining contact and connectedness. I want to thank you and Philip Bither for giving me the opportunity to participate in this awesome and invaluable encounter. I truly feel that the Walker Art Center could establish a global professional institute that would meet on an annual or biannual basis to further this kind of international think-tank approach. The Bush Advisory Committee and your initiative has keenly stimulated my own critical thinking and reaffirmed some of my analysis and values about the curatorial practice and process for international collaboration and global programming. I know I will continue to impart the insights we garnered, specifically to my own organization and the performing arts field at large. . . . Forgive me for indulging in a mushy moment, but my heart and head are full with all that we were able to learn and accomplish over these past few years.”