Empathy & Risk (ER) was born out of a conviction that artists’ perspectives have an important role to play in the framing of international, national and institutional responses to threat and conflict.

ER believes that the capacity of the arts to effectively influence policy development has not been systematically explored, exploited or applied. It draws on a body of international artists, academics, lawyers and practitioners who work in sites of publicly acknowledged empathetic breakdown – curating responses from within the people, policies and processes of these sites.

The group is focussed on influencing policy formulation within the realms of international development, risk management and military response.