Current situation: Conventional art changes nothing.
It is unremarkable. It doesn’t address the real problems we face, such as depression, addiction and homelessness. Its purpose is to make conventional life bearable. It is used for self-satisfaction, complacency, and consumerism. It serves merely to distract and give solace. It is part of our consumerist culture.
There are innumerable clever, hard-working poets, painters, singers, dancers. There are thousands of museums, galleries, theaters and concert halls. Every city has a grand performing arts center that costs tens of millions of dollars, multiple movie screens, playhouses and theaters. But art is powerless. Society continues as before, superficial and materialistic.

Vision: Beauty and creativity in everyday life
Can art help us feel intensely the beauty of the earth and sky? Can it help us express the majesty of life, the immense potential we have to make the world better?
Real art is dynamic, alive, sensitive. It is a way to conceive of a truly beautiful world and it takes steps to get there. Visionary art creates new ways of living – what we do during the course of the day, what we do for fun, from how we earn our living, how we define and govern our relationships, what we care about, what we believe in, what we dream, how we use our energy.
The art scene has remarkable potential. Everyone must have access to art. Everyone must create art, in one form or another.

Topics
Explore the meaning of culture Topics.
Mass culture
What is the purpose of art?

Practice
Take account of the effect on your psyche. Think of a work of art you have enjoyed. How did it make you feel? Did it inflame your ego? Does it reinforce stereotypes? Does it make you compare yourself to others? Or did it recognize the part of you that you admire? Did it make you feel more human? Did it address what is best in you?

Action
Visionary Society Action is an alternative to standard activism. See articles in this edition for details.

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Alternatives

Beautiful Books
The purpose of Beautiful Books is to promote and celebrate beautiful art. We want to remind each other that culture can lift and inspire, inform and transform. Goodness, beauty and truth exist. Let’s join together to rediscover what this is.

Pledge
A pledge is thoughtfulness about a profession.
Put the fair and good into your mind. Ask for meaning at every cultural experience. Stop participating in the illusory, idolatrous, superficial, and degraded.
See complete pledge

“In most of our lives there is a lack of sensitivity to beauty. You may see a beautiful face, a lovely painting, a marvelous temple and the sculptured hills, but never feel intensely or passionately the beauty of the earth and the sky. One wonders why.” J. Krishnamurti

What can you do?
→ Join a Proposal or add your own
→ Review the article in this edition for details on the Quest path opportunities presented here.
→ Explore Culture by taking a Topic.
→ Sign up for our newsletter and eceive notifications about actions and events in (your community)
→ Help with this edition. For example, distribute locally (and speak to a staff person).
→ RSVP to the lcoal meeting. Explore ideas for understanding and action with like-minded people in your community.