There is something particularly visceral, memorable and directly human that an artistic photo, painting, poem, sculpture or piece of music can convey. I think of the moving impressions left in me by Dudamel’s orchestra playing Alma Llanera, the prayer ribbons hanging in Grace Cathedral, ODC Dance Company’s choreography of Triangulating Euclid.
Yet as powerful as it can be, art is rarely incorporated into social-innovation storytelling.
There’s perhaps concern about its more ‘abstract’ nature. Maybe it’s the lack of good examples that make people shy away from experimenting. Or the fact that artists are simply not at the table where communications conversations are taking place.
So you might ask yourself, how can art be used in support of advancing your social and environmental missions?
This is precisely what the Gates Foundation explored as they considered how to impress urgency on the global community that the current vaccination rate of one in five children must be increased. They invited more than 30 world-renowned artists to tell the stories of the past, present and future impact of immunization through a collection called “The Art of Saving a Life.” They include photographers (Annie Leibovitz, Sebastião Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark); writers (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie); filmmakers (Luc Jacquet, director of the documentary “March of the Penguins”); and bands (Playing for Change). Each piece is drawn from the individual artist’s inspiration.
The art will be released online during the month of January, leading up to a funder conference in Berlin hosted by German chancellor Angela Merkel that aims to mobilize $7.5 billion in support of the GAVI Alliances’s efforts to immunize an additional 300 million children against life-threatening diseases by 2020 and prevent up to six million deaths.
As you enjoy this extraordinary collection, consider how you might be inspired to venture off the familiar narrative into a more artistic space. How might you advance your vision by infusing a more artistic approach to your communications plan? What would it be like to offer greater artistic license to your designers, writers, filmmakers?
Do you have other good examples of art used to advance social missions? Have you experimented with this yourself? Please share – we’d love to see!