Are the arts really the most appropriate mode for communications about these issues?

Lertzman, R. (2009). Interview with David Buckland, Founder, Cape Farewell. Environmental Communications, 2(1), 110-118.

The  question in this headline comes directly from Dr. Renee Lertzman. She asked it in an interview with David Buckland, the London-based artist who founded the Cape Farewell climate change project.Buckland's response - basically: yes - was ambling and indirect. For a more precise, even surgical response, you should ask the question of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose transparent fear of artists reveals a clear understanding of their power.

The source for that notion lies in the work of Franke James, who is delivering the 11th Annual Robert Bateman Lecture at Royal Roads University on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015. James is an artist with a highly approachable style - a childlike innocence that can belie the passionate seriousness of her voice. Five or six years ago, she was content to limit that voice to her artistic work. But ever since the Prime Minister's Office intervened to prevent her from mounting a series of shows across Europe, she has also moved more directly into the world of environmental, social and political activism, speaking widely and pointedly campaigning, especially against government censorship in the arts and sciences.

James' work is worthy in its own right and her activism is admirable on many levels. But for this discussion, it is the actions of the Prime Minister that speak most forcefully in favour of the position that art is a powerful communicator. As she has documented so well, through general sleuthing and, especially, through a tireless troll through documents that she has received in several successive and necessarily stubborn Freedom of Information access requests, Harper's office took a direct interest - and launched a pointed campaign against the Euro-showing of her work. It's always tricky to ascribe motive, but circumstantially, those appear to be the actions of a man who understand, and fear, the power of art.

So, if may or may not be "the most appropriate mode for communications about these issues." But it's surely one of the best in a portfolio of possibilities - one we should not dismiss, forget - or discourage.