Columbia students have been working on a proposal to host an arts and media summit in April 2010.

The planned focus of the summit is to have discussions concerning how media is used as an activist tool to get a message out through the next generation of media makers. The summit, led by senior film and video major Kevin Gosztola, will be partnering with the college’s Critical Encounters program. Critical Encounters’ mission is to create an ongoing dialogue between students, staff and faculty regarding what the college community can do as future artists and media makers of our culture.

Gosztola has worked as a student representative for Critical Encounters’ task force for the past year. He said he was inspired to get involved with the group  last year by Kevin Fuller, a science and math professor who headed last year’s Critical Encounters’ Human Nature focus.

“They noticed that I was really excited and into the types of things that Critical Encounters does on campus,” Gosztola said. “Seeing my interest, passion and energy, [Fuller] encouraged me to attend the meetings as a task force. I would show up and it would be a way for them to have an idea to see what students’ reactions to Critical Encounters were.”

Some possible discussions the summit would raise include the value of citizen journalism and participatory media in enhancing communities, public and society; how artists and the media further democratize media in the face of a dominant corporate media structure in society; and the role of artists and media makers in creating public spaces for informed conversations on issues of public significance.

Gosztola plans on the summit being a week-long event.  Although plans for what speakers would be addressing are not final, he would like for well-known speakers and other organizations with similar interests to be in attendance to discuss the concepts  once they are decided. The space where the summit will be held is also undecided.

Eric Scholl, television professor and head of this year’s Critical Encounters: Fact and Faith series, said the summit could also tie in with the previous themes that Critical Encounters has discussed in the past, such as HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Privilege, and Human Nature, because they are all interconnected.

Gosztola has been working closely with student-run organization Art Activists, headed by Madelyn George.  She worked with Critical Encounters earlier this year on the “Die-In” that took place honoring the civilian lives lost during the war in  Afghanistan. George said that the summit’s ideas work well with Art Activist’s philosophy.

“I wanted to start the Art Activists group because I think there are some really interesting ways of reaching wider audiences when attention is paid to specific media,” George said. “I hope that students  who participate in the event will be inspired in their own work.  I think it will be a project that will bring people from different departments together during the  planning process.”

Although the planning of the summit is in its infancy, students and student organizations are considering taking part in the discussions to explore what they can be doing while attending Columbia and even after they graduate.

Any students that are interested in discussing the concept of using new media for social change, and feel it has the potential for making it more relevant to the curriculum across the college, are encouraged to get involved.

Lott Hill, director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, has also been working closely with Gosztola throughout the planning process and feels as though this is a great opportunity for the community to get involved.

“I think that Columbia provides the platform for students to really create culture or to produce culture,” Hill said. “Students taking the leadership to make this media summit happen will be taking skills they have learned through

Columbia and brought with them. Creating a media summit is what we are about as an institution.”