Sustainability, Ethics, and Aesthetics

Abstract

Among four dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, social, and cultural), it is the latter aspect that is least examined by scholars. However, understanding how culture contributes to the long term sustainability of communities and societies is one key to a holistic understanding of sustainability itself, and is worthy of scholarly attention. This paper argues that the ethic of long-term sustainability can be informed by aesthetics and art in their embodied, institutionalized form. The resilience potential of art organizations is important for configuring the long-term impact of aesthetics and its place for future generations. As art organizations struggle with addressing the consequences of economic recessions and finding new models of conducting their temporal business, their very existence and preservation contributes to the long-term sustainability of communities and societies as a whole. This paper suggests two avenues for further research: first, the values and ideals embedded in strategic priorities of art institutions and promoted through their programs contribute to building resilience capital and serve as the foundation of long-term institutional survival; second, by fulfilling their institutional missions through both short and long-term strategies and acting ‘sustainably,’ managers of art organizations ensure institutional endurance, thus vouching safe the interests of future generations.