This article goes to something I’ve been saying for years (and which underlies some of my proposals that I endeavored to advance through my work at the University of Dayton). Any meaningful poltical, social, cultural movement, especially one that encapsulates the advancement of human rights, is profoundly dependent upon art and the artist for its potential to succeed.

As humanity faces enormous problems that challenge our very survival, interdisciplinary approaches must include artists, whose preference for unconventional approaches and unique forms of representation makes them adept at daring and creative problem solving. Artists help move consciousness forward, as they always have.

t is clear that pressing global challenges, such as economic inequality, migration, climate change, aging societies and food security, present problems too difficult for any one discipline to solve. It will take teams of thinkers working across disciplines. And, given the interconnectivity and global scale of these issues, the solutions will have to look and feel completely new. Artists, with their preference for unconventional approaches and unique forms of representation, are adept at this type of daring and creative problem solving. Increasingly welcomed into these conversations, they can help move consciousness forward, as they always have. 

Read Carol Becker’s complete piece on Art and Research