How art became a force at Davos

Feb 26, 2019

Participants attend the 'Collisions. A Virtual Reality World Premiere' event at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich - LR1EC1L0OQN72

The Annual Meeting proves that any effective agenda for changing the world must include the force of visionary artists. Image: Reuters/Ruben Sprich

Carol Becker

Dean of Faculty, Columbia School of the Arts

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Arts and Culture is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Arts and Culture

Photographer Platon Antoniou discussing his work at the Annual Meeting in Davos in 2015. Image: World Economic Forum

Attendees watch Collisions at the Annual Meeting in 2016. Image: Reuters/Ruben Sprich

Tomás Saraceno, who suspended one of his Aerocenes inside the Conference Centre's main hall in 2017. Image: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

MagnaReady's magnetic shirt on display at Davos 2019. To address this daily challenge caused by her husband's Parkinson’s disease, fashion designer Maura Horton embedded a magnetic closure system behind the shirt’s buttons. Magnets make getting dressed easier for everyone while also retaining a person’s dignity of dressing independently. Image: World Economic Forum

The Afghan Women's Orchestra, Image: World Economic Forum

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.