Our first project is “Breakthrough! – 20 Years After German Unification – Critical Perspectives of Berlin Artists.” We will bring 10 Berlin artists and their art in 2010 to five cities across the US. All ten artists lived behind the Iron Curtain in former East Germany and either were imprisoned, deported, or both for expressing themselves freely as artists. Their stories of risk-taking to exercise their freedom of expression are compelling. In each of the five cities we will have a one-month exhibition, and most importantly, we will set up a series of dialogue with the artists and high schoolers, university students, business, political, and NGO leaders and others from the communities to talk about the underlying values reflected in the lives of these artists and in their art – courage, freedom of expression, optimism, commitment, etc. We hope to inspire many people to view these values as true gifts to be nurtured and not taken for granted.