Posted in News on Feb 06, 2026.
January 28, 2026, marked the official online debut of The Planetary Arts Movement: X-ART, an ambitious global initiative led by the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) in partnership with UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition and other like-minded organisations.
Under the banner Art with Purpose: A Blank Canvas, the event convened a diverse assembly of leaders to reposition creativity as a primary driver for global transformation.
Welcoming guests, Kate Robertson, Co-Founder, One Young World, emphasised that the movement is a "strategic necessity" for the 21st century. As HE Winnie Kiap, Chair of the Commonwealth Foundation, noted during the session, "Creativity is an important catalyst for Justice, Understanding and Hope."
Redefining the Role of the Arts:
The movement represents a collective mission to transform global threats into innovative solutions for human survival. This requires a shift in how we perceive the artist's role; as Colin Sugden, Founder Artistic PNK, referenced via Joseph Beuys, "We are all artists," advocating that everyone has a stake in this creative evolution.
Garry Jacobs, President of WAAS, emphasised a revival of the Academy’s founding focus on the arts. He highlighted the timely "need for a planetary arts movement," and the importance of focussing on the Arts as a catalyst for change, while noting a moral duty to ensure the inventions of science serve the flourishing of the human race.
Beacons of Hope: Art as a Catalyst
A cornerstone of the movement is the "Peace Project: Beacons of Hope." This strategic initiative identifies specific artistic projects or communities worldwide already using creativity to solve human security issues. These "Beacons" serve as visible, inspiring examples of how art can:
During the launch, Belinda Rathle, representing Ave Fenix, provided a powerful example of this through her presentation, Art as a Catalyst for Change – Young Artists and the War on Climate Project.
In the session, ‘Sharing Wisdom – the Purpose of Art in the Pacific’ HE Winnie Kiap detailed how art serves as a functional and spiritual vessel for traditional knowledge and community resilience in Pacific cultures, while discussing her collaboration with the Commonwealth Short Essay Competition to elevate diverse global voices.
Speakers throughout the session emphasised how art can reflect reality and express crisis, while also acting as a "window" to a new, better resolve. Fumiko Green, advocate for peace through art, described this as a "living force for Global Understanding, Compassion and Peace." She shared inspiring images of ‘Kids Guernica’, a project involving children painting peace murals, connecting art with society, and the ‘World Peace Violin’, representing diversity and inclusion.
Gordon Fuller, Artist and relative of Buckminster Fuller, designer of the Geodesic Dome, shared how he is spurred by the belief that “the future is not something we predict but something we design” seeing art and creative expression as “doorways to understanding and connection.”
Key themes from the launch included:
Integrating Humanities into Global Policy
Steven Hartman, Founding Executive Director of UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES, led a critical session on the role of the humanities in building resilience and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He introduced the coalition’s vision of how knowledge domains, such as the humanities and indigenous knowledge, can be better applied to advance global security and flourishing planetary futures.
Silvia Zimmermann de Castillo, Co-President of the Club of Rome, reinforced this, sharing how the humanities are central to building the resilience required to navigate a changing world, in the session “Relevance of the Arts and Culture for Creating Ecological Civilisations”.
A Historical Revival
Grant Schreiber, General Manager of WAAS, provided the historical context, explaining that X-ART is a revival of the original 1960s vision of WAAS founders, including Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, who worked alongside artists like Henry Moore. Schreiber noted that while the movement remains rooted in the Academy’s "transdisciplinary thinking," it stays "curious and playful," seeking new ways of seeing the world.
Looking Ahead: The London Launch
The movement will transition from its digital debut to a major physical presence in April 2026. "The World We Want" (WWW) for Planet and Peace, an X-ART Live launch, is scheduled to take place at Overseas House in London on April 10-11, 2026.
Organisers, including Colin Sugden, aim to engage 100 "artists-as-beacons" to display works that address complex global problems and offer "unexpected answers" through creative expression, effectively "holding up that mirror and sharing what we can do as humans to move forward."
This initiative aims to show how a "peaceful, flourishing planet" is something we can actively build and co-create, together.
Call to Action: Sign the Manifesto
Sign the Manifesto: A Manifesto for the Planetary Arts Movement: X-Art Advanced by the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). The movement invites visionaries worldwide to sign the X-ART Manifesto, to co-create a New Planetary Culture. Catalysing a fundamental shift in how we relate to the planet.
Further information can be found here
Watch the recording of this event here
More information can be found here at Cadmus Journal
