Debbie opened up the theme of this year’s Interface event by considering modern and contemporary art practice as sources of hope in times of conflict: how artists since the first major crisis of the 20th century – the war of 1914-18 – have coped and even flourished under conditions of violence and political oppression as well as in times of personal suffering. She goes on to look at some of the radical strategies of artists in our own burdened time for negotiating what it means to make art in a time of crisis and for creating visions of hope grounded in reality and relationship.