“Our world is more divided than I’ve ever known in my lifetime, and I am deeply moved by the efforts of the NEA to formalize this initiative for Understanding. Most of the time, I feel like we humans have forgotten how to listen to each other; we lack the middle spaces where people can be right and wrong at the same time. Art allows us to hang in the middle of possibility, to consider new and different points of view, and to crack open our hearts to voices that didn’t inhabit them before. If we can’t make change nation by nation, maybe we can do it artist by artist, human by human.”