This is an informal roundtable discussion among friends and artists at the 2025 London ARC Conference that includes myself, Andrew Gould, Aidan Hart, Heather Pollington, Neil and Kate DeGraide from Dirt Poor Robins, Ben and Vesper Stamper, Martin Shaw, and John Heers. Amidst thousands of voices focused on policy and economics, we stepped aside to ask a deeper question: what does it mean to renew civilization through beauty?
Together, we explore how architecture, music, and the arts shape our perception of the world—and how the recovery of beauty might be essential for healing both culture and soul. There are no scripts here, just a shared sense of wonder, frustration, and conviction. We speak of cities and forests, temples and toasts, tradition and imagination… and what it truly means to see rightly again.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/6oS5NYXut0c

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keywords:
ARC Conference, art, architecture, civilization, beauty, human experience, Christian culture, symbolism, design, architecture, music, art, beauty, creativity, orthodoxy, healing, abstraction, civic engagement, human experience

395 - Beauty First: Envisioning a Civilization Worth Restoring (ARC Roundtable)

The Symbolic World