Art for a Better World

10/19/2022

"Throughout the world, people want the same things: access to clean air and water; economic opportunities; a safe and healthy place to raise their kids; shelter; lifelong learning; a sense of community; and the ability to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives."

If a super-majority is united on these basic principles what is stopping us from putting them into place in our communities; right here, right now?

How can artists help us to bring to focus the obstacles that are preventing us from advancing towards our dream and illuminate a pathway to a better future?

Throughout the world, people want the same things: access to clean air and water; economic opportunities; a safe and healthy place to raise their kids; shelter; lifelong learning; a sense of community; and the ability to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. A sustainable community ta...

10/05/2022

https://youtu.be/LIESmWKTbuM

This podcast calls out to artists in Pontiac. Using the Psalter Map as a vehicle to explore how medieval peoples had a sense for how human society was interwoven to creation. Medieval cosmology provides a jumping off point for considering how modern consumerism promotes anomie, narcissism and ecocide. Contemporary artists by imagining a better world are critical for helping to illuminate a social pathway for realigning our values with ecological realities.

09/28/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MJKQA1c744&t=119s

Carson Becke is a Canadian pianist who has performed worldwide. He holds a doctorate in musicology from the University of Oxford, and is the director of Pont...

08/27/2022

In the ecological crises to come, can we rely upon government? In the Post-Carbon Reader, Rob Hopkins explores the role of communities in fostering resilience.

"Community matters when we are looking for responses to peak oil and climate change because of the power that emerges from working together and creating meaningful change through shared action. In a world where social capital and a sense of connection to community are in decline, it is the taking of...

08/25/2022

The steering group met in the Agora.
Under the broad rubric of "artful voices for positive change," we agreed to schedule a day's long "gathering" sometime in November to bring together artists from various communities in the Pontiac riding, and working across various media, to engage in a "conversation" around the four cardinal points of art and politics (see image below). For the next meeting in the third week of September, we will finalize a date, venue, topics, preliminary agenda, presenters and generate an invite list for the "gathering" that will represent the richness of engaged art in our community.

08/25/2022

Is fear about inaction on climate change spreading dread and depression among the young who will inherit our world? Britt Wray talks about eco-Anxiety, a topic in her book Generation Dread:

Author and researcher, Britt Wray, examines how we can cope with feelings of doom over the climate crisis, and why we shouldn’t lose hope.WATCH MORE debates ...

08/23/2022

"Global solutions to climate change demand the cooperation of all nation-states, foremost among them the U.S. and China, the two largest carbon emitters. But artists are central, too, because it is they who can change hearts and minds. Artists are often among the first to sound warnings about impending crises and the dangers of political action or inaction. Throughout history, artists have called attention to the travails and injustices of the day."

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation is taking one key step toward progress with the launch of the new Climate Art Awards.

08/19/2022

How would cities look if artists were in charge of urban planning? Why is Paris the most photographed city in the world? Do beautiful cities promote well being and deter crime? How can local artists not just beautify parlors, but also amplify the ambiance of the communities in which they live?

Happiness is not determined exclusively by your individual situation, but also the environment in which you live. What is the secret sauce that makes some communities not only beautiful but also joyful?

The World Happiness Report is a publication of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, powered by the Gallup World Poll data.

08/16/2022

Can the narrow scope of art therapy be expanded so that community artists can promote well being in schools, retirement homes and underprivileged communities? How might artists as activists promote healing, mindfulness and a sense of communal belonging?

https://ucalgary.ca/news/brain-research-shows-arts-promote-mental-health #:~:text=In%20another%20study%2C%20cognitive%20neuroscientists,neurobiological%20basis%20of%20the%20arts.

Practising art can be used to build capacity for managing mental and emotional well-being, writes Brittany Harker Martin, Werklund School of Education, in Conversation Canada

08/11/2022

Since all art has meaning it is always speaking to society and its structures of power. If art is never neutral and inescapably entangled with politics, then every artist is also an activist.

08/09/2022

Five ways of looking at the intersection between art, politics and positive change. Click on the image below to go deeper into this topic.

View the interactive image by Tom Boogaart

08/09/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZz_gZrmkX0

"Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory [of the artist] since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed."

-Harold Pinter, 2005 Noble Lecture

This heart-felt and often confrontational speech from Harold Pinter, recorded after he was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, addresses all three of...