Description 

The article, written by Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts since 2007, traces the increasing integration of arts and culture into the World Economic Forum (WEF) held annually at Davos, a Swiss town in the Alps. Over time, the forum’s corporate and political nature transformed into a space where artists interpreted and shaped global conversations on social, environmental, and ethical issues.

The 2013 hiring of Nico Daswani as Head of Arts and Culture was pivotal. Highlights included art installations and exhibitions such as Aerocenes by Tomás Saraceno and the Access+Ability exhibition on inclusive design. 

Becker considers art to have become a great strength of the World Economic Forum as a medium for interpreting global issues and providing dialogue and new visionary perspectives. 

Feelings 

I was interested in reading this article because it surprised me that art has not always been integral to discussions of politics, science, and the economy. Overall, it engaged my curiosity in the subject further.

Evaluation 

Overall, this article fits my academic practice in the fashion business school at the London College of Fashion. I teach strategies in fashion marketing and branding. I was the first postgraduate fashion marketing unit leader to initiate the inclusion of creative outputs in some of the business marketing development plans. From my perspective, the Fashion Business School is an ‘economic forum’ that could often benefit from further artistic and visionary interpretation. 

Analysis 

“We believe the world needs creativity”.  UAL 

I was reminded of the UAL strategy, emphasising that the world needs creativity (UAL, 2025). This corresponds with Becker’s evaluation of Davos and the World Economic Forum, where she also considers that art will be at the very heart of change in the future of world leadership. 

Although we have historically incorporated written strategic marketing development plans in the postgraduate fashion marketing units, until my addition of a creative artefact element to Marketing Communications in 2023, there was no visual element requirement other than the graphic design of the project itself as a component of the realisation assessment criteria. 

The idea that art can serve as ethical education refers back as far as the work of Aristotle, who wrote Poetics in 330 BC. Similarly, in her book The Human Condition, political philosopher Hannah Arendt discusses the “space of appearance” where humans engage with each other and create discourse around political issues. 

Conclusion 

Engaging with this reading has allowed me to reflect, using the Gibbs Reflective Model (Gibbs 1988) on the balance of art and business. 

Personal Action Plan

For future assessment briefs, I will continue to consider how to integrate theoretical business knowledge with visually creative outputs. The conversation has already begun within the Marketing and Branding faculty about how to differentiate the unit briefs and create new ways of assessing the traditionally academic postgraduate marketing course. The next stage would be to meet the unit leaders for the postgraduate fashion marketing courses to discuss the various output methods. 

References

Aristotle (1996) Poetics. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 

Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2009) Teaching for Quality Learning at University (Third Edition). Maidenhead, Berkshire: Society for Research Into Higher Education and Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education . 

For the air, for the climate in the name of eco-social justice (no date) Aerocene. Available at: https://aerocene.org/ (Accessed: 24 March 2025). 

Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing . 1st edn. Oxford, Oxfordshire: The Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Brookes. 

Hinkel, L. (no date) ‘Aerocene’ soars at the 47th World Economic Forum, MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Available at: https://news.mit.edu/2017/aerocene-soars-at-wef-davos-0209 (Accessed: 24 March 2025). 

Nico Daswani (no date) Advisory Board for the Arts. Available at: https://www.advisoryboardarts.com/nico-daswani (Accessed: 24 March 2025). 

UAL (2025) Our Strategy 2022-2032, University of the Arts London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/strategy-and-governance/strategy (Accessed: 24 March 2025).