Art expresses difference, and it expresses consensus. Art brings up issues. It's a rather unencumbered opportunity or framework, offering opportunities to step outside of the normal way of doing or seeing things. Art is a very reflective process. It allows for collective and individual reflection on issues, on processes, on relationships.
People get a real high from participating.
Stepping outside of what they normally do, and becoming architects and planners of time and space. I think art is a very interesting way, though not necessarily the most effective way, to create change. But not because of anything intrinsic with the making. Rather, it's a matter of scale and resources. If artists had the scale and resources of the mining industry then of course we could stop mining.