As we head towards the 21st century, as we try to confront and adapt to deepening global ecological and social problems, what meaning can art have, and can it survive as we know it? This book addresses these and other questions, exploring through dialogue, rather than from a position of authority, the role and meaning of art in our culture. A series of 18 conversations with artists, writers, philosophers and critics provides the basis of thoughts and points of view. The answers that emerge all seem to point the same way. They indicate the need for a new direction in art - a move away from the isolationist, individualistic ideals of modernism towards a more "collective" view, an art with wider parameters embracing a revitalized sense of community and an enlarged ecological perspective.