Dialogue specialist and clinical/organizational psychologist Patricia Romney offers an accessible review of the ideas of selected historic and contemporary philosophers and dialogue theorists including: Socrates and Plato, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, David Bohm, and David Isaacs, and considers the implications of their ideas for arts-based civic dialogue practice.  Romney shares her observations about a production of West Side Story that was never carried out due to a polarizing debate that ensued in the community.  West Side Story was seen alternately as an extraordinary artistic production with powerful messages about the impact of bigotry, racism, and interethnic conflict, and as a play written by Anglos stereotypically characterizing Latinos as gang members. The tale of West Side Story serves to illuminate how the various dialogue theories may inform current arts-based civic dialogue efforts.  The Art of Dialogue raises questions for further field exchange such as:  How can these theories help to define the intents and parameters of arts-based dialogue?  How do any of these dialogue theories help to understand the role of artistic provocation in engendering dialogue?  How do Bakhtin and the intergroup theorists shed light on the relationship between the personal and the public in terms of the intent for art to promote civic dialogue?  What should be considered to determine if a cultural organization has the potential to be, as Isaacs suggests, an effective holding environment for an issue to be explored?

Dialogue specialist and clinical/organizational psychologist Patricia Romney offers an accessible review of the ideas of selected historic and contemporary philosophers and dialogue theorists including: Socrates and Plato, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, David Bohm, and David Isaacs, and considers the implications of their ideas for arts-based civic dialogue practice.  Romney shares her observations about a production of West Side Story that was never carried out due to a polarizing debate that ensued in the community.  West Side Story was seen alternately as an extraordinary artistic production with powerful messages about the impact of bigotry, racism, and interethnic conflict, and as a play written by Anglos stereotypically characterizing Latinos as gang members. The tale of West Side Story serves to illuminate how the various dialogue theories may inform current arts-based civic dialogue efforts.  The Art of Dialogue raises questions for further field exchange such as:  How can these theories help to define the intents and parameters of arts-based dialogue?  How do any of these dialogue theories help to understand the role of artistic provocation in engendering dialogue?  How do Bakhtin and the intergroup theorists shed light on the relationship between the personal and the public in terms of the intent for art to promote civic dialogue?  What should be considered to determine if a cultural organization has the potential to be, as Isaacs suggests, an effective holding environment for an issue to be explored?