Agency

The New School
Inaugural Lecture on the Vera List Center's 2007/2008 theme of
*agency*

*Agency and Art in a Hyper-Consumerist Culture:
The Agent as Artist, as Consumer and as Citizen *

Benjamin R. Barber, University of Maryland


Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
The New School
Wollman Hall
65 West 11th Street, 5th floor (enter at 66 West 12th Street)
New York, New York
Admission: $8, free for all students, as well as New School faculty,
staff and alumni with valid ID

Each year, an inaugural lecture launches the Vera List Center's annual theme, defining the intellectual territory that will be explored in public programs throughout the year. This year, the theme of "Agency will be introduced by Benjamin R. Barber, Professor of Civil Society, University of Maryland

Benjamin R. Barber will explore the impact of the commercialization and commodification of art and the subordination of art to utilitarian ends (such as happiness and wealth) through the lens of agency and freedom. The term "cultural property" suggests some of the issues to be addressed. The kind of freedom associated with consumers as citizens (their private vs. public liberty) and its impact on notions of agency.

[image from a google image search for "agency"]