Throughout history, art and culture of various kinds and forms has been part of the evolution of our societies. Festivals, handicrafts, food and songs are bringing stories and knowledge regarding the links between human and nature, in and between generations, and are vital for the feeling of belonging amongst people around the planet.

Art has a unique possibility to capture winds of change, simultaneously as it impacts the formation and development of societies and the people living there. It has a potential to perform and convey messages, ideas, expressions where words fall short. It can connect directly to people´s heart and body, sometimes more than to the mind, which enables art to actually shift mindsets in a more profound way than other forms of communication.

Art and culture for many people in the world is also intimately linked to spiritual belief systems, including locally based understanding of the relationships between nature, humans and deities.

With this new functional area SwedBio intends to both make ongoing work among programme partners related to art and culture in various forms more visible, and to recognize and learn from their experiences and open up for sharing in order to inspire others in the development of new perspectives. Art and cultural expressions can for example be in the form of theatre, literature, painting, sculpture, poetry, music, dance, architecture, story telling, spirituality and rituals.

Art and culture for many people in the world is also intimately linked to spiritual belief systems, including locally based understanding of the relationships between nature, humans and deities.

 

Art and culture are playing a crucial role in the work of SwedBio, and are recognised to:

  • Highlight the intrinsic value of art and culture in our partners’ work
  • Contribute to finding more creative solutions to global environmental change challenges
  • Stimulate a deeper understanding and demystifying complex and seemingly distant or abstract issues concerning resilience and issues of global environmental change
  • Support change towards increased social ecological resilience
  • Contribute to the acceptance and recognition of the diversity of methods at hand for generation of knowledge and to bring it onwards in practice in different cultures
  • Illustrate the value of the diversity of cultures SwedBio collaborates with
  • Strengthen the connection between people – policy makers, practitioners, scientists and civil society organisations – from different cultures and value systems
  • Propel transformational change in mindsets, institutions, organisations and decision making processes
  • Act as instrument to voice the concerns of marginalised groups such as indigenous and local communities
  • Analyse and investigate complex issues, requiring transdisciplinary training and thinking
  • Facilitate the co-design and co-creation of knowledge
  • Spur new thinking, creativity, imagination, innovations, provoking feelings, impacting the development of values
  • Support a more equal treatment and valuation of different knowledge systems and cultures and contribute to empowerment of marginalised groups
  • Increase the sense of responsibility for global environmental change issues
  • Stimulate the development of new methods to address problems
  • Stimulate hope
  • Inspire empathy, influencing behaviour change
  • Act as a tool to engage more people in issues of global environmental sustainability.