Knowledge

“Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.”
Daniel Barenboim

guernica

Picasso’s Guernica

While Guernica (1937) was surely not the first piece of art that was politically motivated and the powerful expression of the inner state of mind of its painter, Picasso, it is commonly referred to the beginning of the use of art for social change. The painting, a response to the Nazi bombing of a Basque city in northern Spain ordered by General Franco, has become an international symbol of genocide committed during wartime, powerfully enameled, both disturbing and captivating the spectator.

For years, an ever growing number of artists have and are creating positive and profound social change. They do so through community art projects, politically motivated art, peace art and protest art, and through teaching art, thereby empowering others, opting for creative and alternative solutions, and stimulating a shift of the locus of control.

In addition to the artist, we at Inspiration believe that the art product itself may deliver a strong message, criticize, raise questions and initiate behavioral and cognitive changes.

Inspiration seeks to accumulate the existing knowledge to understand the various mechanisms and identify the methodologies applied at hand. Likewise, together with our partners, we seek to expand the existing knowledge, to advance and develop in the areas of evaluation, research and knowledge distribution to nourish the movement and deliver art as a driving force for social change.