A Declaration in Favor of the Arts, Creativity And Their Free and Open Exchange

As we live in an era in which governments, out of fear, ignorance, or penury, seek to restrict funding for the arts, seek to thwart artistic expression, and seek to place barriers to the free interchange of international artistic creativity, a decent respect for world opinion (and for the arts themselves) requires that we should declare our fervent support for the arts and for its creators, whether they are born in the United States or otherwise.

We, immigration lawyers based in New York, hold these truths to be self-evident:

1. The arts enrich each country, both spiritually and economically, in which they flourish.

2. Artistic creativity depends on an openness to millions of voices in dozens of languages and cultures from around the globe.

3. The arts remain an important instrument of international cooperation and understanding.

4. The arts and artistic creativity ensure the continuity and growth of all manner of free expression.

5. If the arts are alive and vibrant, then our respective societies will be alive and vibrant.

6. Arts communities from around the globe are essential to our understanding of our world, our collective past, our collective future, and our collective humanity.

7. The arts, more than any other endeavor, seek to explain the human project to the 6 billion participants in that project.

8. The flourishing of artistic creativity and achievement, across cultures and across borders, realizes the dreams and hopes not only of artists but also of us all.

Recognizing the crucial importance of the arts and their free expression, particularly at this moment in world history, and with a firm reliance on the creativity of the millions of brilliant, talented people in the arts around the globe, we, as immigration lawyers, pledge to the international arts community our lives, our legal acumen, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.