WÆRK Blog
On elevating empathy, humans, and nature - in business and civics - through culture
"With Food in Mind develops art-based approaches to food education and food injustice. Collectively, our programs explore the potential of visual art and artists to affect change in childhood obesity and nutrition disparities in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color."
Image via withfoodinmind.org
"We invite you to get inspired by the Rijksmuseum's collection and create your own design using Rijksstudio."
Image via the Rijksmuseum website
Now that business has concerned itself with “authenticity”, the term may become as meaningless as “natural” is (in the context of commerce). The discussion about authenticity has transcended the start-up sphere and entered the conference rooms of established conglomerates. Many of these organizations – comprised of layer upon layer of people with similar backgrounds, credentials and points-of-view – don’t know how to “get real. It’s difficult to transparently engage the purchasing public in such insular, isolated conditions.
Today’s sophisticated consumer seeks truth and transparency, because the relationship between brand and consumer is like never before. Increasingly, what we do and what we buy is connected to the individual identities we cultivate and ultimately transmit to the world.
WÆRK’s business is built upon the belief that the keys to truthful connections between corporations and their customers are held by artists. It is artists who possess the tools that connect heart and mind, who can reveal the chimerical facts of human existence in practical form, and who can encourage the conscious exchange of goods and services.
Please visit our What and How pages to learn more about what we do.
Image via Pinterest
We're inspired by the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in the Virgin Islands. The organization engages with its artists-in-residence, in ways that buoy both the local community and individual art practice.
Photo via the CMC Arts website.
Yesterday, Patti Smith’s “M Train” was released. On Saturday night, I had the awesome pleasure of observing her conversation with David Remnick as part of the New Yorker Festival. Days later, the thoughts and themes she articulated remain at the forefront of my mind.
Ms. Smith invoked a downtown (Manhattan) that wasn’t a glossy caricature of the artist life, but instead fecund soil for creativity. She did so in a tone of voice that was suffused with fatigue rather than nostalgia. Perhaps she was tired of reminding people that there were times when emerging art and outsider artists were vital sources of energy in the city, when the substance of art - not its sheen - was prioritized.
She warned the audience against the pull of disposable culture, and reminded us that it’s good work and good deeds that endure. In a world focused on immediacy, how often do we allow ourselves the time to do truly good work? Do we allot ourselves enough time to contemplate before we render something complete (or comment, or send)? How focused are we, honestly, on good deeds? When did we decide that simply looking good was enough?
Technology isn’t the enemy, but it’s not the answer either. We humans, individuals, communities, are the most powerful forces of advancement, and the arts are the vessel through which this power is best communicated.
It is the root that holds the magic that makes the flower bloom and bloom again, while petals inevitably shrivel.
I believe that widespread collaborations between the art and technology sectors will lead us to a future we are proud to inhabit.
Sacha Wynne, WӔRK Founder
Book cover image via Amazon
"Connected Worlds immerses visitors in a fantastical animated world where your actions — gestures, movements, and decisions — impact how well the world is kept in balance."
Image via the New York Hall of Science website.
We're inspired by ARTs East New York's art-based approach to fostering community growth and development.
Image via the ARTs East New York website
In the recent past, traditional liberal arts education was merely undervalued. Today it’s being attacked outright, as the prioritization of applied approaches to education gain prominence in academic and economic dialogues. Contemporary wisdom dictates that our youth should be directed toward STEM fields, but we at WÆRK believe that the dearth of the critical thinking, which is the fruit of a liberal arts education, is creating a crisis.
Using social media as a megaphone, anyone can broadcast his or her opinion to the world. Too frequently, these often critical opinions are neither mediated by deep contemplation nor empathetic consideration. Broad context is often ignored, due to the rapid pace of online communication and unfamiliarity with bridging ideas that is nurtured through training in critical thought. People “don’t read the comments” because they know that base, anonymous criticism drags dialogue into the gutter. Online trolls may assault the ego, but they destroy the development of fecund conversations and communities.
As we face an increasing glut of information, the critical thinking education that is viewed as so disposable will, in fact, be more relevant than ever. A background in critical thinking can help us weed through crap to find quality. It may provide a checks and balances system for the increasingly unfettered digital economy, by encouraging wholesale consideration before judgments are made. It may, invigorated by intertextuality online and off, encourage a richness of culture and conversation.
Photo by WÆRK
