More and more of us are beginning to understand that our planet has finely balanced and interdependent ecosystems and limited natural resources.
And many of us also are realising that we are coming up against the limits of our planet’s capacity to support us. We are now consuming so much of the oil, food, water and other assets we depend on that they are getting scarcer1 and in the process we are changing our climate2. Our current model of economic growth, which has encouraged our over consumption is broken3. Our wellbeing is declining4 and inequality is rising5, fuelling conflict, mass migration, poverty and many other social problems.
All this necessitates an urgent and radical rethinking of how we live and work and a fundamental redefinition of the values on which those activities are based.
MMM’s belief is that art and culture are integral to this process of evolutionary change.6 We need art and culture’s expressive and disruptive energy to help us (re)think our values and sow the seeds of a new way of living which will take us toward a more sustainable and world where all life can flourish.
Through our projects and on this website we aim to collect, develop and spread examples of this energy and how we can generate it. We hope that the relationships we make and the body of evidence and practice we build will encourage recognition of art and culture as an abundant resource with a vital role in helping us make that leap to a liveable world.
Footnotes:
1 MEA 2005
2 IPCC 2007
3 Stiglitz J. 2009 ‘Freefall’
4 http://www.neweconomics.org/programmes/well-being
5 Wilkinson R. and Pickett K. 2009 ‘The Spirit Level’