Juan Puntes, founder of White Box, has a mission – to link contemporary art with ethical issues and to counter highly commercialized art with work that is underrated or overlooked.

His New York gallery is run as a non profit exhibition space, and he encourages his innovative curators to exhibit provocative work. 

Recent shows include work by Iraqi artist, Adel Abidin, whose show Abidin Travels turned the gallery space into a travel agency selling real holidays to a post -US invasion Iraq and an exhibition by Belgian artist, Pieter Vermeersch who is concerned with the  way space is perceived and likes to paint directly on the walls, doors or windows to engage viewers with the environment.

Puntes also supports internships and benefit events and White Box’ s annual programs have included exhibitions aimed at getting voters to register, work with local low-income neighbourhoods and collaboration with local women’s prisons on inmate art.

With a regular, rotating audience of around 12,000 art lovers, White Box has a reputation  as a venue for distinctive and thought-provoking contemporary art.

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Featuring the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, as keynote speaker and an audience of Parliamentarians, ambassadors and luminaries from the peace field, the event drew attention to the paltry sums spent on conflict prevention around the world compared to military expenditure and called on the G20 to redress the balance

For every £1 spent on conflict prevention and peacebuilding £1885 is spent on arms and military resources!

Read Dr Sentamu's speech here and an account of the event here.

Picture: imediate

For thousand of years we thought the Earth was the centre of everything. Then science came along and told us a different story.

In cosmic terms the human being is probably no bigger than a quark. Yet his brain (the size of a cantaloup melon and wrinkled like a walnut) is the most complex object in the known Universe. As Stephan Hawking said, 'We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe and that make us something special.'

There's scale and there's scale - and even our wondrous grey matter is mind-boggled trying to wrap itself round this!

Well, it's shit ... that's right, shit!
Shit may just be the most functional word in the English language.

You can smoke shit, buy shit, sell shit, lose shit, find shit, forget shit, and tell others to eat shit. Some people know their shit, while others can't tell the difference between shit and shineola. There are lucky shits, dumb shits, and crazy shits. There is bull shit, horse shit, and chicken shit. You can throw shit, sling shit, catch shit, shoot the shit, or duck when the shit hits the fan. You can give a shit or serve shit on a shingle. You can find yourself in deep shit or be happier than a pig in shit.

Psychologist Aric Sigman is advising social networkers to ‘get off Facebook and get a life.’

The physical isolation involved in communicating via the computer could have damaging consequences in the longer term because hormones such as the ‘cuddle chemical’ Oxytocin, which promotes bonding and ensures emotional and psychological well-being, is produced by human proximity.  

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‘At three o'clock in the morning, in a hotel room high above still-glimmering Montreal, Tina Turner is plugging into the universal buzz: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho–renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo… As the words gather speed, her voice rises slightly to a smoothly rippling alto drone, then winds down.’ 

So said Kurt Loder in a 1984 article for Rolling Stone magazine.  Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, is a global megastar and one of the most famous Buddhists in the West.