We have had the pleasure of hosting Pierre Guillet de Monthoux from Stockholm School of Economics to discuss his passion of art and literature in different contexts. Pierre gave a lecture for USBE students and provided time to discuss projects and plans with our staff. We discussed our ideas about how art and literature can be used in business education for sustainability and received some wonderful inspiration.

One example is the use of art in activism, and we were advised to check out the Acute Art group. After a visit to the local art museum, we have found new interest from the art school who we will meet to present our project soon. As artistic director since 2010 and curator since 1995, Katarina Pierre has been decisive for the Art Museum’s profile with a focus on international contemporary art, where post-colonial themes, the center and periphery of the art world and issues of power and gender have a prominent place.

The use of art to inform and inspire action for sustainability could help to break restraints on what we feel we can do for sustainability. We have also been notified about the 11th Art of Management & Organization Conference that will meet in 2024 with the theme ‘New Total Arts for Sustainable Futures’. The description describes further:

“New Total Arts perspective – art as an attitude, philosophy and guiding principle which should enable sustainable futures. Total Art strongly resonates with trans-disciplinarity but gains its strength in action and doing”.

11th Art of Management & Organization Conference

The conference is ambitious, creative and should be fun, pushing the boundaries of what normal conferences provide. It is open for many different forms of research and practitioners interested in crossing the restrictions that disciplines experience to take action for sustainability. Are you ready to take a holistic step into the unknown, or revisit an old love you have for the arts? How could you use art in your education and what inspirations have you experienced? Share your thoughts in our discussion forum.

There is much discussion about how literature can help support education for sustainability. An article by Olof Frack and Christina Osbeck (2018) called Challenging the concept of ethical literacy within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Storytelling as a method within sustainability didactics is an example from the perspective of the individuals’ responsibility to take action for sustainability. Have you read anything recently that you think you could use to help your students to learn for sustainability? Let us know and we can add them to our literature list.

Reference

Franck, O., & Osbeck, C. (2018). Challenging the concept of ethical literacy within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Storytelling as a method within sustainability didactics. Education 3-13, 46(2), 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2016.1201690