IRVINE : City Offers Cultural Awareness Seminars

In December, while the City Council was debating whether to allow a Christmas tree display in the Civic Center courtyard, a man who supported the resolution said only a minority of people, those wearing “funny hats,” would be offended by the Christian symbol.

Partially as a reaction to that debate, the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission scheduled four weekly seminars on cultural awareness, beginning today with the Jewish culture.

The lunchtime seminars are voluntary for city employees and are open to the public. Today’s hourlong seminar will be at noon at City Hall.

The December controversy over the Christmas tree and whether to begin City Council meetings with prayer or a moment of silence prompted the Cultural Affairs Commission to begin the seminars, said Toni McDonald, Irvine’s cultural affairs superintendent.

The goal of the seminars is to sensitize city employees to the historical roots of the different cultures of Irvine residents, said Henry Korn, manager of cultural affairs. The city hired the Irvine-based Historical and Cultural Foundation to give the seminars. Programs in the coming weeks will be on the Chinese, Japanese and Armenian cultures.

Those cultures were selected because of their prevalence in Irvine and because the foundation had experts and material available to discuss them, McDonald said. Irvine has a sizable Iranian population, but the foundation doesn’t yet have a presentation available on that culture.

Understanding the cultures of neighbors is central to understanding and getting along with them, said Tricia Goldman, director of the nonprofit Historical and Cultural Foundation. Without understanding, tensions among co-workers, management and neighbors will increase, she said.

The foundation is often asked to present its cultural awareness seminars to school, but Irvine’s request was the first from a city, Goldman said. The seminars will focus on the highlights of each culture.

“We touch upon the traditions, the artistic traditions, the family life traditions, their holidays and the contributions the culture has made to society,” she said. “We try to relate it to what people already know. We highlight the differences in a positive way and highlight what we share.”

The seminar on Chinese culture will be March 19 at 1 p.m. at the city’s corporate yard, 15029 Sand Canyon Ave. The rest of the seminars, on Japanese culture on April 23 and Armenian culture May 1, will be at noon in a City Hall meeting room.