It is necessary to open and sustain spaces in which innovation, creativity, art, and culture are not commodities - where we relate to them not as consumers, but as citizens and human beings.  Art can become a leader of culture again - a source of vital cognitive capacities in the future - only if it helps culture to innovate in ways that do not entail commodification. Democracy requires arts and culture most acutely for this very reason.

Arts and culture have a direct bearing on our capacity to face today’s complex issues. Art safeguards a long-term view; not only does it provide a counterweight to the fast evolving world of technology, but it also helps to make sense of this world. Art invites participation and thus transcends the division between observation and activism. Art inspires insights that resonate across disciplines. Art helps to situate science and technology in public space by symbolically and reflexively representing their roles in society. Art fosters imagination and creativity, capacities that are crucial in its impact on the individual and the community.