Conflict, environmental disaster and their aftermath: Repairing our broken world through art

Our goal for this Special Issue is to examine if and how the arts can mitigate human and environmental suffering in times of human conflict, climate catastrophe and global pandemics. We asked if the arts have the capacity to awaken empathetic responses to inseparable, intersecting issues and if they can help to redress these traumas. If so, how can one person – one art educator – take concrete steps to contribute meaningfully towards this goal? How might art educators engage in everyday activism by using the arts to examine underlying systemic power structures in all levels of education and might the arts resist such structures that limit the individual’s intuition, well-being and self-realization? Therefore, we suggest that the ethical issues of the arts are to inquire how the arts might help to establish equity among diverse peoples, First Peoples and the more-than-human world.