June 12, 2017


To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (pcfremail@gmail.com; thepcfr.org):

Our last speaker of the season comes on Wednesday, June 14, with Laura Freid. Until recently she served as the founding chief executive of  Silkroad, also known as the Silk Road Project, the global arts organization founded by Yo-Yo Ma, the famed cellist, in 1998 to promote international understanding and collaboration through the arts. The Silk Road, of course,  was an ancient network of trade routes that were for centuries central to cultural interaction across much of Eurasia connecting the East and West. 
 
Ms. Freid was recently named the president of the Maine College of Art.
 
She’ll talk about  her experiences with  Silk Road Project and the present and future ofthe arts as a force for international peace and mutual understanding. 

She is calling her talk “What Happens When Strangers Meet? Lessons from the Road.’’ There will be film clips. 

Many members  may remember Ms. Freid's tenures as executive vice president for public affairs and university relations at Brown University and chief communications Officer at Harvard University, where she was publisher of Harvard Magazine.

Our summer hiatus starts after the June 14 dinner but we'll be sending out our traditional "Summer Letter'' soon thereafter with news about PCFR programs and internal improvements to come.