In today's world, we witness various forms of persistent conflicts and confrontations among different nations, and issues such as destruction of environment, over-population, poverty, and illiteracy continue to reign over many regions. These global issues seem to be creating the situation in which people, especially youth of the world are overcome by a growing sense of powerlessness. Amid this situation, we cannot overlook the fact that the dialogs which gropes for the better future inclines toward the arguments based on economy and politics, and such dialogues are making us feel despair of the future after all. The artists who are active on the global stage are creating works with clear vision and philosophy toward society. They are the men of foresight. We are convinced that these artists can offer highly novel approaches to resolving problems confronting humanity today on a global scale and break through this situation.

"Artists Summit, Kyoto" will bring together 8 top artists from around the world. It consists of two programs. The first is "Artists Summit Core Meeting" which seeks to propose possible solutions to various issues in the world with discussions among 8 artists. The second session is "Artists Summit Symposia" which seeks to identify the role and the possibility of the arts in the society with the international company leaders and the students from Japanese senior high schools and universities.

We do not believe that logics in economy and politics can lead us to a sense of hope, therefore, feel it necessary to identify the role of arts in the society as forms of communication that are universal and timeless in appeal. We hope this summit will build worldwide networks within industrial, administrative and academic sectors and will offer the key to changing the world.