The Art of Democracy
Creative Expression and American Greatness
On March 20, 2017, Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, delivered the 30th annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy to an audience at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In this stirring defense of public investment in the arts, Walker explains how the arts personally lifted him up, expounds on the role of the arts in our democracy, and argues that creative expression is what actually makes America great.
As people across the United States experience what Walker describes as a “poverty of imagination”—and a paucity of hope—his powerful oration makes clear: “Without art, there is no empathy. Without empathy, there is no justice.”