United art

“Finitude and death”, as the redoubtable Susan George puts it, now snap at our collective heels. Given the tally of global crises, how relevant is a book marking the 50th anniversaries of the UN and UNESCO? Refreshingly, The Right to Hope by Catherine Tick (Earthscan, £14.95, ISBN 1 85383 309 6) looks hard at their roles – and beyond. The 48 artists and writers (Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai and George among them) present an alternative, cross-cultural vision in which art is both expression and agent of global change.