Merlijn Twaalfhoven

Merlijn Twaalfhoven is composer and author of the book It is up to us – why we need the artist in ourselves to save the world. He seeks unusual bridges between art and society and is founder of The Turn Club, a collaboration of art professionals, change agents and bridge builders. He is co-initiator of the Social Creative Council in The Netherlands, a lobby club for new values and imagination. In refugee camps and across dividing lines in Cyprus, Palestine and Syria he created music projects, seeking to find fresh and connecting roles for the participants and redefine their relationships towards each other.

Attention – An artist mindset

In a time of major changes, complex crises and unprecedented uncertainty, we get stuck and overwhelmed if we continue to look, think and react in the way we are used to. Can we look with fresh eyes? Can feelings play a role? And can we play, experiment and create environments where we can make and build new ships that can navigate through the storms of our time?
We can learn from artists? They find a rare kind of freedom to search for meaning and value and to work with dedication and focus on beautiful, fascinating questions. If we want to address the big and complex challenges of todays world, we might need to adopt an artist mindset.