Rethinking art's role in society

I've read a very interesting article by Sam Bower of greenmuseum.org a few weeks ago, and realized that it's the ideal thing to share. It sparks a lot of new thoughts and questions about how and why we make art, and even though perception differs very widely from person to person looks at the ways that we might be very wrong in our way of thinking and doing things at the moment. It looks critically at the economy and funding for the arts in America. Here is an excerpt from the article:

I'm a firm believer in the notion that art, ecological thinking and social justice are essential to making sustainability work. Any culture that has lived in the same place for thousands of years has had to integrate these things. Unfortunately, we have not and are now facing a global crisis in the financial sector, ecological doom and gloom, endless wars and the increasing burdens of social injustice. One of our most powerful tools as a species, the arts, have been coopted by the dominant culture and presented back to us as a largely ornamental commodity, divorced from social and environmental responsibility. The fact is, the arts have an important role to play in healing our disconnection from each other and the Earth. As a people, we need to call attention to this.

- The Need to Circle Back, by Sam Bower



Lea Redmond, "Barcode Falls: Scanning the Land and Taking Stock", paper, 2007.

Make yourself a cup of herbal tea, and go and read the full article:
www.greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=309

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