An inherently community-oriented realm, art is a vitally important means through which FIC engages individuals and communities. This is because art naturally carries empathy, harkening back to the unique and valuable voice and dignity of the artist. A sense of the dignity of a life stirs a healthy cultural current, naturally evoking the value of the artistic voice in many lives.

The creation of art is healthy. It is liberating and therapeutic to victims of trauma who cannot adequately express their pain and experiences in words. It is especially revitalizing to those marginalized to be cogs on the wheel of a war machine, dehumanized beyond imagination and desensitized, searing their imagination.

Art is a great tool for teaching in an interdisciplinary manner in that it is naturally affirming to an individual’s value and voice and naturally intersects with math, science and other disciplines.

Where advocacy and educational depictions of the “third world” often do little justice to individuals’ dignity and personalities, art enables people to speak for themselves while bridging cultures and communities reinforcing a sense of “commonalities before differences.”