The covert and overt role of art in landscape partnership

Although in recent history the arts have received substantial attention as a conduit for memorable artworks to draw attention to issues that may be coincidental to the artists original intention, this does not acknowledge the arts as equal partner in a shared enterprise but more to facilitate the accessibility of difficult concepts. This essay explores the capability for the visual arts to increase understanding of issues as disparate as the loss of rural landscape to urban development and the incremental effects of sea level rise upon coastal communities. With increased specialisation of disciplinary practice there is an incapacity to address the multi-dimensional character of practical challenges, particularly in the matter of the societal impacts of environmental change. This demands greater flexibility in approach to policy and an understanding that the increasing frequency of unforeseen events beg the question of our cultural preparedness to evolve a new paradigm for knowledge sharing.

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.