What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory

A lifetime’s worth of practical wisdom and reflection. The result is a kind of joyous manifesto.

Remarkable for its ability to render sophisticated and sometimes slippery ideas in clear, accessible language [. . .] The most powerful ideas here present art as conduit to community, as a way to be vulnerable, to surrender [. . .] This is a beautiful book.

A work of art [. . .] explains the role of art in individual wellbeing and bringing communities together in tumultuous times.

Light but never lightweight [. . .] An upbeat audit of ideas about art's wider purpose and potential, mercifully free of scholarly didacticism or convolution.

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s I wasn’t afraid of Art even though my family was poor and undereducated and knew nothing about it. I was excited and wanted to join in, even to be part of contemporary art-making. I lost that confidence along the way. Became scared of Art, felt excluded by it. Reading What Art Does, has helped me regain that confidence by reminding me we’re all making art all the time. That Art is for us and by us.

Idea-rich [. . .] as visually engaging as it is intellectually stimulating.