Creativity in Times of Social Crisis
The role of art in collective healing
In times of global tragedy and collective grief, it’s easy to feel helpless. What can we as individuals (and creatives) do to fix systemic problems?
Following is a passage from the last chapter of my new book, The Art of You, about art and creativity as tools for collective healing and revolution.
The New Renaissance: Creativity for Social Impact
Being a dreamer, it is sometimes said, is a waste of time and doesn’t make a productive contribution to society. But dreams always come before reality. Before something can exist, it must be built. Before it can be built, it must be planned. And before it can be planned, it must be imagined.
Artists are the visionaries who plant seeds in the collective consciousness that take root and eventually grow into the sturdy branches of reality. Being attuned to the quiet wisdom of intuition, artists are the first to hear the call of change, of revolution, and then reflect back the message through creative expression.
When it comes to shaping a better world, everyone has a different role. Some people are here to challenge the status quo and tear down old structures. Some people are here to help heal trauma. Some people are here to build more sustainable supply chains. Some people are here to transmute pain into laughter. Creativity has an essential social utility. Art is not a plan. Art is a vision. Visions always precede plans. Imagination precedes discovery.
As I write these words in the early years of the 2020s, our civilization is facing a multifaceted crisis: economic, environmental, political, existential, spiritual. Our legacy systems—propped up by colonialism, greed, and economic imbalance—exist in a prolonged state of atrophy, disconnected from the regenerative flow of nature. The problems are deeply rooted and systemic. It often feels hopeless. What can we as individuals do to help heal the world?
There are historical precedents. In the fourteenth century, a period known as the Dark Ages, Europe was haunted by religious persecution, famine, and plagues. The future looked bleak, but the artists, the philosophers, and the dreamers found a way forward.
Taking inspiration from ancient Greece, artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael studied the timeless beauty of classical art and philosophy, and they adapted the style for their times. Creative innovation was not relegated to the visual arts. Leonardo da Vinci’s innovation extended into science and engineering, taking inspiration from nature and adding human ingenuity to imagine and design practical tools for the future. This small group of creatives, who were willing to think and act outside the box, led to a flourishing culture, starting in Italy before spreading across Europe, shedding the light of modernity into the Dark Ages. This period came to be known as the Renaissance, the French word for “rebirth.”
Art is not just art. It can be a seed of new consciousness, a vision, a prophecy. The languages of art, stories, and myth are just as important and true as the language of science. Art can articulate a collective feeling and ignite a change of mind and heart. Art is a dream that solidifies into higher and higher fidelity according to our collective awareness and belief, eventually becoming real.
Even the Greek philosopher Plato, an early proponent of logic and reason, believed that art could have ripple effects that altered the fabric of society. In his book The Republic, considered the crown jewel of Western philosophy, Plato stated that music had the authority to change laws. “Musical innovation is full of danger to the State,” he said. “For when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”
Dogma must be challenged and dissolved in the imagination and the heart before it can be overcome in the material world. Art points the way to a society beyond borders, beyond hate, beyond division.
This is a call to artists everywhere. What we need is a New Renaissance, a new vision to believe in, a vision rooted in sustainability, community, and higher consciousness. We need a new cultural myth.
If the sustained dream of artists and poets helps to shape a culture’s mythology, and that mythology goes on to generate values, laws, and morality, then the artists and poets of the twenty-first century have a responsibility to renew our shared mythology and vision. We must go back to the soil and plant new seeds in the collective consciousness.
Artists are the magicians and the mythmakers. A new Earth must be born in the heart and the imagination before it can manifest as physical reality.
Read more in my new book, The Art of You: The Essential Guidebook to Reclaiming Your Creativity. Get your copy (and unlock bonus gifts).
I recently had the pleasure of joining the legend Tami Simon (founder of Sounds True, who published The Art of You) on her podcast, Insights on the Edge. We talked about writing, living an authentic life, and creativity for healing.