Lee Boot - Art can save the world. No, really.

Why? Because peoples’ choices are strongly influenced by the ideas that surround them; culture is the garden of behavior. CEOs, classroom teachers and surgeons all know they’ll only have excellence if they build cultures that support it. But our society has dropped the ball on weaving wisdom into culture. Poor education, crime and environmental destruction are only some of the results. When culture is an accident, we pay the price. What’s art got to do with it? Just as math is the language of science, art is the language of culture. Virtually every civilization we admire, past and present created art to give human meaning and cultural resonance to their best ideas. We can do this too. It’s time for artists to jump off the sidelines and engage deeply in helping to grow our culture. Artists, especially younger ones, seem to know this and are showing us they’re ready.

Lee Boot is a filmmaker and media artist whose works have been shown both nationally and internationally. Most recently, his feature film, Euphoria won the Gold Award for Documentary at the Houston International film festival. Lee is on the research faculty at UMBC and operates his own media company, InfoCulture with his business partner and wife, Stacy Arnold.

So what do you think?