Art has so much power. It has the power to illuminate beautiful and miraculous and indescribable joy of life. And it often does. Who doesn’t stand in front of a Georgia O’Keefe painting and feel a smile settling on their face? Who doesn’t read a John Keats poem, or a page from Thoreau’s Walden and take a minute to just let the words rattle around in their head a little after they’re done?

But art also has the power to shine a powerful light on the ugly, the unfair, and the injustice in the world around us. Authors often tackle these topics, and there are artists – some of whom have been featured in exhibitions at our local world class museum – doing the same.