Art and Altruism

I was reading letters to the editor in a very mediocre and amateur (and thus unnamed) artists' magazine recently, which debated (again) whether art's duty is to document and raise the profile of the world's social, political, moral etc sins, or whether art was to be made gratia artis. Anyway, I came across an art project with social conscience, The Cradle Project, whose purpose is (to quote from their site) the following: "In Spring of 2008 one thousand cradles and cribs made by artisans from around the world will fill an abandoned warehouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We call this vision The Cradle Project.
The Cradle Project is a fundraising art installation designed to represent the plight of the estimated 48 million children who have been orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our Mission is to promote awareness and raise financial support to help feed, shelter, and educate these children."

En tout cas, you can see hundreds of the produced cradles so far here, but my favourite was one which, although entitled based on the womb, resembled a baptismal font. Perhaps the two are as one.