Please join us for The Island Institute's 25th Sitka Symposium, FrameWork: Shaping an Enduring Culture. Our conversations on our theme will be led by a remarkable guest faculty: Gary Holthaus, Robin Kimmerer, and Gary Snyder. We expect to engage in some of the urgent and constructive questions we face as people living together on an imperiled planet. We welcome your experience, insight and knowledge. As a starting point, we offer the following parameters for discussion:

• How can we change the framework that constrains us in habitual patterns of thought and practice that endanger our future?
• What aspects of our worldview need to change in order for us to shape a culture based on long-term human needs and the well-being of the planet?
• What assumptions need to be challenged in order for us to create and inhabit resilient cultural and ecological communities?
• What are the durable traditions and sources of wisdom that can guide us?
• What practical manageable-scale actions might we imagine and carry out in collaboration with others to help us transform ourselves and our culture?
• What new stories will help us and our children and grandchildren answer the enduring human questions, Who are we in relation to the world? How, then, shall we live?

GENERAL SYMPOSIUM DESCRIPTION

The Sitka Symposium is a gathering that aims to put both written and oral traditions to the service of ideas. The week’s events invite participants to come together to explore the complex ideas and questions of our theme. Symposium faculty present talks, readings, and panel discussions, and participate in small group discussions. Full-time participants engage directly with faculty and other participants in all these activities. Any writer who enrolls full-time may opt to have a manuscript critique with one of the faculty (submit by May 15).

Small group discussions will be led by Island Institute associates and staff. No more than 50 people will be enrolled full-time so as to foster genuine conversation. We welcome a broad audience of readers, writers—anyone interested—and expect participants from communities around Alaska, the U.S., and elsewhere. All will have opportunities to learn about Tlingit culture and Sitka’s beaches and forests. Anyone who can’t enroll full-time may attend individual faculty talks and readings.

The schedule for participants registered for the full Symposium lays out details of activities. A listing of public events includes individiual faculty talks and evening readings, as well as the wine tasting and dinner cruise described below.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Several optional activities complement this year’s Symposium:

• “Where Poetry Meets Prose,” a writing workshop taught by Gary Holthaus, will meet June 24-25. Limited to twelve.
• The Larkspur Café Wine Tasting June 27, open to the public, includes hors d'ouevres and will be a pleasant prelude to Gary Snyder's reading that evening. Limited tickets are $35.
• Our Dinner Cruise June 28, featuring fine food and a reading by Alaska Writer Laureate Nancy Lord, is open to the public. Tickets are $60, and early reservations are advised.
• A Natural History Excursion on June 29 with naturalist Greg Streveler will be a pleasant informative foray into the Tongass National Forest surrounding Sitka. Also limited to twelve.
• The Sitka Summer Music Festival overlaps with the Symposium, allowing participants to attend their finale chamber music concert on June 26.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Details on Symposium tuition, workshop fees, cruise tickets, etc. are on the Registration Form that you can download, print out, and mail or fax to us.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND TRAVEL

You can get to Sitka on Alaska Airlines daily flights or on the Alaska Marine Highway. Early reservations are advised since summer is a popular time to travel to Alaska.

We advise booking accommodations at local hotels or bed and breakfasts three months in advane. If you're interested in shared accommodations with a group of other people, contact us.