I believe that art is so much more than a commodity to hang on walls, and that the artist’s function in this society goes beyond making products to sell. Rather it is vital and transformative, and added to initiatives in other disciplines, can contribute to healing our broken society. An increasing number of creative people are working as activists in bringing societal change through community building, consciousness raising, and other activities which directly and positively impact individuals and their communities.
I want to highlight some of them here because a lot of this activity is ‘below the radar’, ie not picked up by the media. And all these initiatives together form a surge that is growing, powerful and important.
Miriam Rankin is the first artist in this new feature, Artists Who Care. She is an example of one person whose enthusiasm and creativity started by ‘touching one heart at a time’ in a New York classroom and spread through a whole school district.
Art transforms systems, it revitalises every classroom, hospital, prison, boardroom, etc that it touches. And it all starts with small steps locally, like Miriam did.
If you know someone whose story would fit here, please let me know.
Art Calling 