Author(s)	Max Wyman
Publisher	Cormorant Books
Publication Year	2023

ISBN: 9781770866997

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The Compassionate Imagination

How the arts are central to a functioning democracy

A radical reimagining of the role of art and culture in contemporary democracy, The Compassionate Imagination proposes a new Canadian Cultural Contract that re-humanizes our way of living together by tapping into the instincts for generosity and compassion that find their expression in art.

Contributors

Max Wyman

Max Wyman is one of Canada’s foremost cultural commentators. For more than three decades he wrote arts criticism and analysis for Vancouver newspapers and CBC radio. The Compassionate Imagination is his seventh book on the arts in Canada. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a former member of the board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and a former President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. He lives in Lions Bay, near Vancouver, BC.

Chapter	Contributors	Pages	Year	Price
Overture In this chapter, Wyman argues that Canadian arts and culture are essential to nationhood rather than peripheral. View	Max Wyman	10	2023	$1.00
How Art and Culture Can Build a Better Canada In this chapter, Wyman argues that Canada’s arts and culture are indispensable to a complete national life, not merely an economic asset. View	Max Wyman	21	2023	$2.10
Educating the Heart In this chapter, Wyman examines how art cultivates compassion and strengthens community. View	Max Wyman	10	2023	$1.00
Intermezzo In this chapter, Wyman introduces the Canadian Cultural Contract and the Canadian Foundation for Culture, drawing on UNESCO’s 2001 Universal Declaration to frame a broad definition of culture. View	Max Wyman	3	2023	$0.30
What Are the Principles We Can Agree On? In this chapter, Wyman examines humanity’s struggle to identify shared moral principles, a quest that stretches from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to the 1948 Universal Declaration … View	Max Wyman	7	2023	$0.70
Learning into the Unknowable In this chapter, Wyman explores how art and literature serve as pathways to meaning, spiritual connection, and imaginative engagement beyond the digital world. View	Max Wyman	17	2023	$1.70
Letting the Soul Come Out to Play In this chapter, Wyman argues that arts access is a fundamental human right. View	Max Wyman	15	2023	$1.50
Why Can't We Talk to Each Other? In this chapter, Wyman explores how arts and literature are important for human connection. View	Max Wyman	20	2023	$2.00
Knitting Our World Together In this chapter, Wyman traces how theatre and visual arts have shaped empathy and social change from ancient Greece to contemporary Canada. View	Max Wyman	23	2023	$2.30
A Full Head of STEAM In this chapter, Wyman argues that the artificial divide between the arts and sciences in education must be dismantled. View	Max Wyman	24	2023	$2.40
What's Wrong with the Status Quo? In this chapter, Wyman traces Canada’s evolving cultural policy from the 1951 Massey Report through to the 2005 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity to the 2023 Online Streaming Act. View	Max Wyman	22	2023	$2.20
The Canadian Foundation for Culture In this chapter, Wyman proposes a Canadian Foundation for Culture, a new agency spanning arts, publishing, film, and Indigenous cultural support, positioning culture as foundational to civil society. View	Max Wyman	27	2023	$2.70
Coda In this chapter, Wyman argues that culture, creativity, and empathy can reshape society through grassroots action rather than top-down policy. View	Max Wyman	7	2023	$0.70
Bibliography and Acknowledgements This "chapter" is a bibliography. View	Max Wyman	14	2023	$1.40

The Compassionate Imagination

How the arts are central to a functioning democracy

Contributors

Max Wyman

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