Jim Luce

Last week Young Concert Artists (YCA) held its annual Gala Concert at Alice Tully Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, presenting the Lincoln Center debuts of three young soloists to a sold out house. The event began with a welcome by the distinguished pianist Emanuel Ax, a...

I first met Steve Killelea one year ago at the Harvard Club when the U.S. Peace Index (USPI) was launched. Last week, in the Japanese-themed Upper East Side home of Krishen and Geeta Mehta, I met him again -- along with his lovely wife and daughter...

Actress and humanitarian Liv Ullmann kicked off the Women's Refugee Commission's 2012 Voices of Courage Awards luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City on May 4 with a story about a young boy she met in a refugee camp many years ago. He told...

The Art Students League of New York, one of America's premier art schools, will be unveiling Baptism of Concrete Estuary, an amazing and historic 30-foot-long scroll by Jave Yoshimoto, painted in the Japanese style of ukiyo-e woodblock prints -- think 36 scenes...

This week, hundreds gathered at the iconic New York Athletic Club on Central Park South to share stories, support and more stories to make more parents aware that their child's life can be saved by a vaccine. It was the tenth anniversary of the National Meningitis Association (

The Haitian Cultural Foundation (HCF) has just released its nine-minute trailer for its upcoming film Dans l'oeil de la Spirale -- In the Eye of the Spiral. If the film is only half as brilliant as the trailer, Haitian art will finally find its seat at...

This week I was extremely pleased to view a special, global screening of One Day on Earth - the first film ever shot in every country of the world. Although it was shown in hundreds of venues in every corner of the earth, I saw it in the...

Interpreting Indian culture to an American audience is a challenge, but Shah Rukh Khan is so important to global art and social activism, I will attempt to do just that. The largest Bollywood actor and producer, he is a major, global entertainment figure who cares deeply about creativity...

Roosevelt Island has been much in the news as Cornell prepares to make it the East Coast's tech center. This narrow, 2.5 mile long island, opposite the U.N. at one end and Gracie Mansion at the other, is also establishing itself as a major art center in New York. It...

Close to 200 VIPs from New York City's finance, fashion and business communities packed the Trump Plaza Penthouse Midtown recently to celebrate the launch of Indian jewelry and accessories designer Amrita Singh's brand-new home collection.

The incomparable Amrita Singh and...

Select American University of Antigua AUA) College of Medicine students will leave their idyllic surroundings in the Caribbean this spring and immerse themselves into the hustle and bustle of packed emergency rooms in India for some "in-the-field" training. AUA has just signed affiliation agreements with two respected healthcare...

With the American presence in Afghanistan shaken in the horrific wake of Quran burnings, the death of innocent civilians and indications that the American military presence may now withdraw earlier than planned, it occurred to me that we need to step our game up before the Taliban take over again....

New York fashionista Meera Patel's interest in Indian fashion designers piqued when she was planning her own wedding a few years ago -- now, her passion has become an e-rental business called Devi's Closet.

"A typical Indian wedding last three to four days, and you dare not repeat an outfit,"...

One of the highlights of my pilgrimage to India has been meeting Ranjan Kumar, founder and president of the Gyanjyoti Rural Development Welfare Trust (site). Ranjan is a 22-year-old Indian Hindu whose passion and education is rural development. He aspires to become a member of the national government...

I have been privileged to visit two "Untouchable" villages while here on pilgrimage in India -- the first about four miles outside Bodh Gaya in Bihar province, and the other about four hours south of here, in the village of Dumri in Jharkhand province. Both experiences were essential to my...

Americans have been flocking to India in search of enlightenment since before America was founded. Europeans, too, the conscientious objector E.M. Forster and psychoanalytic Herman Hesse among them. So my trip -- my pilgrimage -- to follow in the footsteps of Buddha across Northeastern India is...

Recently I agreed to co-host the World Peace, Health and Culture Conference at the United Nations on behalf of Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW), which I founded 12 years ago. Peace, health and culture are essential to "raising global citizens," the motto of our orphan care program. My friend...

Most Americans think they know Haiti, that squalid, refugee-camp-ridden place somewhere south of Florida. Some Americans think they know Haitian-Americans, too: the maid in Miami, the health attendant in Manhattan, the taxi driver in Brooklyn. What many miss are the approximately 3 million professionals of the Haitian diaspora in North...

"Hahn-Bin, the World's Saddest Clown, Dies at 24." So proclaimed the faux New York Times article on each table before the performance began. It continued, "He committed suicide... just hours after the alleged murder of his ex-lover." So began one of New York's most mesmerizing, strangest and strongest musical performances...

My mother's words still ring out in my head, year after year. It was Thanksgiving 1998, Boston. I was continuing to complain about how traumatized I felt having experienced the Dicksonian conditions of the orphanage where I found my infant son Mathew in Indonesia. The warehouse institution was crib-to-worn-out-crib of...