Art's Role in Civil Society, with Jed Perl

Civics for Life and the O'Connor Institute welcome Jed Perl as he joins Liam Julian for a discussion on the relationship between art and society, the artist’s role in society, and whether art and artists have definite social and political responsibilities.

Perl is the author of nine books, including a two-volume biography of the American sculptor Alexander Calder; a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship; an art critic for the New Republic for twenty years and a contributing editor to Vogue for a decade. He now writes regularly for the New York Review of Books.

In his book Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, Jed Perl argues that “authority and freedom are the lifeblood of the arts.” Are they also the lifeblood of civil society—and especially democratic society?

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[nightsketcher]

Jed Perl - culture hero! I don't agree with everything he says or writes, but he cares about and can articulate why some things matter - or work in conveying meaning -and why some other things don't. This kind of discernment is essential to the human enterprise. It's also getting scarce.