Cases for Culture: A Concept Coined
The arts ignite social change. During the Cases for Culture conference hosted by Cultural Agents at Harvard University, participants put a recurring experience into simple words.
El Juicio Estético
Show Me the Numbers
Thinking like artists, people address problems as challenges that stimulate cognitive and emotional energies. Problems are no longer obstacles, when artmaking demands judgment and decisions about how to use available time and materials. The link to health and psychological wellbeing should be obvious.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Modeling the curatorial as a method for uniting cultural production and science, Climates. Habitats. Environments. weaves together image and text to address the global climate crisis.
A Manifesto for Science and Sociability
Renaissance is a name for a series of dynamic periods when culture and commerce have collaborated to stimulate the urgent changes that each moment demanded. The demand is again palpable today. Responsible scholars, scientists, and political leaders feel the urgency to develop innovative collaborations that advance beyond our existing paradigms of progress that have driven […]
How Creativity Works in the Brain
What is the anatomy of an “aha” moment? How and why did we evolve to have such experiences? Can we prime ourselves to have them more often? Why should we care? These and similar questions were the recent focus of a cross-cutting investigation by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the […]
Culture Connect Us
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 […]
Policy Brief on Culture
Global Parliament of Mayors Summit, Palermo, Italy, October 22, 2021 On October 21-23, mayors from around the world, convened by the Global Parliament of Mayors, will gather virtually in Palermo to chart a path forward for leadership in the postCOVID era. They will be joined by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, think tanks, […]
Yes – the arts can help heal the world
2020 was a year of radical reckoning. It was a time to think afresh. Crises like the pandemic provoke a dramatic reordering of priorities, as well as deep reflection and rethinking. The pandemic wake-up call triggered a dawning of humility as our collective hybris has been humbled and old certainties crumbled. It created both clarity […]
Art as Opportunity and Obligation
The current “United Nations Guidelines on Safer Cities” take a new and welcome peoplecentered approach to improving urban life. Until recently, safety was generally understood as security and pursued in top-down strategies of policing and infrastructure. The visual effect of the new document adds participatory arts to the agenda for urban safety; but there is […]
