The Creative Power of the Arts: Reimagining Human and Planetary Flourishing

As the world confronts the compounded impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and structural injustices, societies are bracing for a protracted and complex period of reassessment, reimagination, and restructuring. The culture and arts sector must be at the table and included in decision-making processes as societies seek to eschew a return to “normal” and instead reimagine more creative pathways towards human and planetary flourishing.

With its broad program portfolio and its expansive arts and culture network, Salzburg Global is uniquely positioned as a strategic platform to support and advocate for these much-needed creative, cross-sectoral, and holistic approaches to systemic transformation. By strategically engaging pivotal international stakeholders across all sectors, this program will connect research, policy, and practice to advance the systemic relevance of culture and the arts for creative and innovative reforms across sectors.

By invitation only.

The power, influence, and creative imagination of the cultural sector needs to be inserted in upcoming worldwide efforts to reframe systems that were already in need of complex reform before being further disrupted by COVID-19. The pandemic has brought into painfully sharp focus the inequalities and urgency of existing problems confronting our societies. It has also made the basic human need for artistic and creative expression more apparent and palpable than it has been in decades.

The humanizing, transformative and enabling power of the arts therefore represents a foundational principle for regeneration. Far from being the “non-essential” workers they have so inappropriately been classified as by many governments during the pandemic, artists, culture bearers, and culture workers will have essential contributions to make in coming years to new strategies for societal and planetary wellbeing. Cultural considerations should not just be “add ons” or afterthoughts to policy development, rather they must be central to the formulation of imaginative, just, and sustainable approaches if they are to succeed.

The Creative Power of the Arts program will therefore focus on the systemic relevance of the arts and culture sector for creative reforms in the four target areas of climate, health, education, and justice. The program will promote and catalyze the intersections between the arts and culture sector and the following four interrelated strands of work:

Reimagining a Greener Planet: Mitigating climate change and furthering sustainable design
Reimagining a Healthier Planet: Promoting health and well-being through the arts
Reimagining a Smarter Planet: Fostering creativity in education and learning
Reimaining a Fairer Planet: Advancing social justice and processes of decolonization

With its broad program portfolio as well as its expansive global change network, Salzburg Global is uniquely positioned as a strategic platform to support and advocate for these much-needed creative, cross-sectoral, and holistic approaches to systemic transformation. The Creative Power of the Arts program will embody a translational model that connects research, policy, and practice by strategically engaging pivotal international stakeholders across all sectors.

Date

Nov 03 - Nov 05, 2021

Session no.

Session 717

Location

Online

Contact

Susanna Seidl-Fox

Program Director, Culture and the Arts

Faye Hobson

Director, Culture

Antonia Boemeke

Program Development Associate

Content overview

Program Participants Partners

Program

Format

This three-day hybrid meeting program (online, accompanied by a small regional convening in Salzburg) is the culmination of a succession of online focus group consultations that were held in the spring and summer of 2021 and were framed around the intersections between the arts and culture sector and the following four interrelated strands of work:

Building Back Greener: Mitigating climate change and designing a greener planet
Building Back Healthier: Promoting community health and individual well-being through the arts
Building Back Smarter: Reimagining creativity in education and learning
Building Back Fairer: Advancing social justice and processes of decolonization

Over the three days in November, the focus group Fellows and additional invited participants will share insights and learning across the four strands of work. The highly interactive program will be structured around an inspiring mix of presentations, curated conversations, knowledge exchanges, and interdisciplinary work in small groups. The process seeks to develop a common strategy for inserting cultural knowledge into decision-making processes and to identify specific areas for future collaboration within and across the four strands going forward. A rapporteur will capture the main findings of the multi-faceted program in a publication, which will be presented to key stakeholders and policymakers.

Goals

Establish a louder and more persuasive voice for the culture and arts sector at the policy level and increase its impact on policy development and implementation through sustained cross-sectoral engagement with major institutions at local, regional, and global level and by facilitating effective connections between research, policy, and practice.
Explore, analyze, and better understand the creative potential for the arts to promote planetary flourishing by facilitating more effective connections between research, policy, and practice.
Create and curate an active and engaged global advocacy alliance for the cultural sector by facilitating cross-sectoral connections via Salzburg Global's new Mobilize! online platform and inspiring unconventional partnerships for creative policy reform and change.
Communicate and scale the systemic relevance of the arts and culture sector for achieving planetary and human well-being through public awareness-raising and influential strategic partnerships.

Key Questions

How can we advance cross-sectoral links between arts and green practice to mitigate climate change and design a more sustainable planet?
How do we build our understanding of how to harness the arts and creativity to drive better community health and individual well-being?
How can we better support the development of creativity in children, particularly through educational systems?
How can the culture and arts sector contribute most effectively and creatively to advancing social justice and supporting complex processes of decolonization?

Participant Profile

The hybrid program will convene an interdisciplinary and inter-generational group of approximately 60 creative practitioners, researchers, and policymakers from around the globe to forge a crucible for strategic dialogue.

The four focus group Fellows include experts in research, policy, and practice from the four respective focus areas: climate, health, education, and justice. They will also be joined by invited key cultural influencers and policymakers.