March 24, 7:40-7:50PM ET Art has often been overlooked as fuel for development. Considered as either decoration or a collectible luxury, art has been narrowly understood as a product of culture rather than as the dynamic process of making.
By YO YO MA Culture connects us. This is something I have believed for my entire life, and I have been lucky to see the proof wherever I go. Whether it’s a composer, orchestra and audience creating communality through a huge work, or a simple song shared by a mother and child, culture is how we create meaning, find purpose, understand each other, experience wonder and construct new realities.
By Ian Koebner
This commentary piece uses Kapsalon Theater, in which cultural institutions across the Netherlands skirted lockdown measures by becoming pop-up beauty salons and gyms, as a case for appreciating the cultural sector’s dire situation and reimagining its potential as an essential public health partner.
Cultural Agents is a platform for academics, artists, community leaders, and active citizens in general. It is an invitation to revive a long humanistic tradition that combines arts and research in the service of civic development.
José Falconi
University of Connecticut.
Doris Sommer
Harvard University.
Tracey Strange
Art Life Laboratory.
