Right here on the Leonardo set at Harlequin Productions, the New Renaissance Forum will feature the sharpest minds in Puget Sound debating the following twenty questions, facilitated by Leonardo himself, and televised on local access Thurston Community TV. 

Tickets to the Forum: $20, $15 for subscribers and Leonardo ticket holders, $10 with student ID
Call the Box Office at 360-786-0151 or buy online now.

What happened in the city states of Italy 500 years ago? Is it happening today in our cities?

1. Does humanity require a crisis to jump to the next level? What plagues us today?

2. What happens when people have access to information? Gutenberg to Google?

3. How is a renaissance fueled by intense periods of exploration and discovery? Christopher Columbus to the Human Genome Project?

4. Does a great cultural advancement require a robust middle class? The Florentine merchant class to the Chinese massive middle?

5. What possibilities arise from professional networking? Guilds to NGO’s?

6. If Leonardo was the “Renaissance Man,” what New Renaissance will be born from the advancement of women?

7. If renaissance means the rebirth of classical times, what is being reborn today? Are we entering a New Renaissance? A dark age? What lies between?

8. What happens to a city when it patronizes the arts, libraries, museums and universities? Florence to Chicago?

9. What is the relationship between ecology, economy and society?

10. What conditions cause empires to rise or fall? Where does America fit along this continuum?

11. How does global economic trade advance local social capital? Why does social capital advance more quickly when people live in proximity to oceans?

12. What is the natural relationship between art and science? Between reason and faith? What is the source of ultimate truth?