My mission (and I thought about whether I mean that word or not, and I do) in the coming months is to really dig into what the arts and humanities contribute to the everyday and the exceptional actions we all take as we live our lives. In other words, what roles do the arts and humanities have outside the spaces that are designed to teach and present them? Outside the galleries, theatres, classrooms beyond the pages of a book or the screens of television and film.
This week my friend Miranda Colmans presented the argument for the economic importance of the arts as they are presented for themselves, but what does someone with arts experience, someone with a humanities degree contribute to the wider world? To me it is that beyond the PHYSICAL and the FISCAL in our daily lives there is imagination and empathy, which I believe leads to people who are able to respond especially well to other people and to novel situations and change and especially to connect the scientific world view to human beings.
I know there are people who have done some of this work, and want to pull that together I am not certain that I am right, although I have experienced it and read about it to some extent, but I am determined to look into this.
I will be talking to people and finding stories, so please contact me if you want to be involved.
More soon…
Human Ties 