I have spent much of my life around artists, and I have learned some of the most important things I know from them. Many of the artists I admire most have made a commitment to getting us to care about things that we do not.

Maya Lin has devoted decades to the environment and to our responsibility for what is disappearing around us. Diana Thater brings us into proximity with endangered species and threatened ecosystems. Andrea Bowers has spent more than thirty years making work about immigration, climate justice, women’s rights, and other forms of activism and advocacy. Amy Adler’s recent work considers social media, identity, self-worth, and what it means to be constantly observed. Paul Chan has created an AI version of himself, using artificial intelligence to investigate intelligence, consciousness, and what constitutes a self.

Diana Thater has said, “Art is like a knife: it needs to be pointed and incisive. I think activism has to be the same way. They shouldn’t be muddled up together.”

These are subjects that can be so enormous—extinction, climate change, immigration, women’s rights, mental health, artificial intelligence—that we can decide they are too complicated, too political, too frightening, or simply too much to engage with.

Artists give these subjects form. Maya Lin has said that art can get people to pay closer attention. Her ongoing What Is Missing? documents species and habitats that have disappeared or may disappear, and she has committed to working on the project for the rest of her life.

These artists have each identified something they believe demands our attention and have committed their practices, over years and sometimes decades, to making it harder for us to look away. Art can change what we see, what we understand, and ultimately what we care about.

What do you care about?