Art often isn’t passive or silent. It can hold fantasy, depict reality, convey emotion, carry gravitas, transport one to other places, trigger a physical reaction or experience, and… it can change the world.

Art is a painting, a poem, a program, a play, a performance, a photograph, a city mural, a sculpture, a carving, architecture, and even a cave such as Lascaux or the Great Pyramid. Art puts forth a communique to the viewer, listener, and consumer. Art says: “We are here, and we are human.” Try to argue that art is not a requisite fundamental of life. Art is, and should be, is a human right. Art should be shared; it should not be hoarded nor belong to just the privileged few who can afford to pay a premium for it.

Art is a storyteller when it chronicles history, and it often chronicles history. The sharing of art or the experience of exploring art together can bring people of diverse persuasions closer and create more tolerance for those who may see the world differently than we might. Consuming art is more than a solitary experience; in many forms of cultural engagement and expression involving art, differences are accepted and maybe even encouraged. Art can pull us away from polarization, stigmatization, and the ”making other” or “otherizing” of those we may not know—of “them”—as people, and alternate worldviews. Art is a kind of compass that leads the way and shortcuts the path to the soul.

Art seeks to be a transformative experience. Every artist wants to move you, to call you, to inspire you to consider or reconsider, to maybe take action, to plan differently, and perhaps even to change your future.

With the capacity to change history and change the world, art is a silent language that engages the sensibilities as well as the mind and maybe even the psyche. In fact, art has changed the world. Investing in art does not have to mean contributing in the form of money.

Here are some wonderful projects that people are doing to bring art to the people.