"The moments when initiating dialogue across difference becomes most difficult are also those in which it is most necessary for our democracy, and indeed for our own humanity," said Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos.
On October 15, the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University hosted the fifth edition of its annual Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festival under a theme of “Make Space for Democracy.”
Speakers included SNF Agora Institute inaugural director Hahrie Han, former Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes, University of Delaware SNF Ithaca Initiative director Timothy Shaffer, Generation Citizen founder Scott Warren, and students from the University of Pennsylvania’s SNF Paideia Program Political Empathy Lab. Andreas, who is also co-chair of the SNF Agora board of overseers, participated in an opening plenary discussion with Han and Hopkins President Ron Daniels.
The first panel emphasized the need for what Han called “gyms for democracy”—civic spaces where can people interact in person with a wide range of others. Creating such a space was part of the impulse behind SNF’s support for the restoration of a historic Baltimore movie palace into the SNF Parkway Theatre, which hosted a screening of a documentary about faith leaders finding common ground on divisive issues as part of the festival.
Its Democracy and Freedom Festival is a microcosm of what the SNF Agora Institute seeks to achieve. Created in 2017 through a $150 million grant from SNF, the institute brings together experts from political science, history, philosophy, and other disciplines to translate scholarly insights into actionable knowledge that can help make pluralistic democracy more resilient.