When we experience a work of art through a painting, a photograph, video, film, a poem,  plays, or a song, we discover that we are moved and changed. When we enable the messages to reach us, we evolve. We often take for granted how much in every day of our life we encounter and interact with art in some form. We choose the songs that are most relevant to our current mood, at home and on the way to work We quote the words we hear and read and they become our life mantra. We constantly inspire one another creatively by sharing images of beauty, hope, and optimism, contributing to the collective powers that bring forward positive reform.

In a 2013 essay entitled “Change the Culture, Change the World,” artist Favianna Rodriguez who co-founded the immigrant rights organization Culture Strike explains it this way: “You may attend a rally or vote, but you also read books, listen to music, engage with visual art, turn on the radio and create your identity through culture. Artists are central, not peripheral, to social change. To have the movements that make the wave, you need cultural workers.”