Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last

In a recent article in The Guardian newspaper the question was asked - can art save the world? As idealistic as I am it would be hard for me to think that this, on the face of it could be possible and yet I have always had my suspicions that there may be some truth to this. Could John Lennon’s song, Imagine, in some way make all the ‘people live life in peace’? Maybe.

What I do know is this: that the people who will be able to change the world in a positive way by finding cures for cancers or designing better surgical procedures, develop sustainable food sources or new forms of energy-saving devices – people who sustain and nurture life - will come from communities and societies that nurture the arts, nurture the creative process. Communities that are filled with art, architecture, music, with theatre and with public sculpture. Art doesn’t exist in darkness.

Art is the creative cauldron, the creative fountain that opens the mind to the possibilities and opportunities that are infinite. John Lennon’s songs will not change the world but the person who will perhaps move the world forward will be inspired by his lyrics and be open to the boundless beauty of those words.

Art is not the answer but art frees us to imagine the answers, to imagine infinity. We have, all of us, the potential to affect and change our environment. Art is above all about ideas; often ideas that are untethered, wild and frenzied. Some will come to fruition and change our lives forever.

Art frees us and allows us to dream. It frees us from being afraid to fail and when we are unafraid to fail, unafraid to fall and rise again, and again and again, then in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “ Free at last free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.”Konstantin Dimopoulos