What is the role of the arts in society? Given the profound impact of new media on multiple aspects of twenty-first century life, how have mediated artistic platforms facilitated new modes of sociality? Have new media, for example, engendered alternative relationships between the arts and various social groups, communities or city organizations? How do the arts influence cognitive processes? And what can research into these processes tell us about the aesthetic experience? What kinds of values are manifested through artistic processes, and how do these values translate into the political and educational spheres? The Research Centre Arts in Society approaches these questions from a variety of arts disciplines, methodologies and by considering a range of arts media.