Happy birthday Leonardo da Vinci.

You would have been 571 today had you not died in the beautiful Chateau Clos Luce in the Loire region of France on May 2, 1519, aged 67. Yet your achievements and your spirit live on and not just in the appreciation of the Mona Lisa, nor only because of the sense of awe that comes from looking through your notebooks and manuscripts packed full of observation, invention and inspiration.

Polymaths are somewhat out of fashion now, our systems of education valuing specialisation more than breadth of knowledge but it is good to be reminded of another way, not least because Scotland’s educational tradition was rooted in creating the “lad o’pairts”, broad in learning but also practically focused, something that the Curriculum for Excellence sought to re-confirm.

Nothing escaped Leonardo’s inquiring eye and as a result, the anniversary of his birth was chosen by Unesco (the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation founded in 1946 and based in Paris ) to be marked as World Art Day, conceived as a reminder of the contribution that creativity makes to the world.

So happy World Art Day too.

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The theme set this year by Unesco is that art is good for health, and if there was ever a time we needed such a thing it is now.

At home and abroad it has been a bruising few weeks and months though we will of course get through the difficulties. It is good therefore to see Audrey Azoulay, Unesco director-general, promote in her World Art Day message last year “the power of art to bring people together, to inspire, heal and share, (which) has become increasingly clear during recent conflicts and crises, including Covid-19.”

The relationship between Unesco and the UK has never been as bad as that between the organisation and the US which withdrew for the second time in 2019 over the issue of Palestinian membership.

Nonetheless, there are some deliberate gaps in the UK’s participation in Unesco initiatives, such as official recognition of what is called the intangible cultural heritage like that represented by the Tinker’s Heart in Argyll.

To its eventual credit Historic Environment Scotland was, after a long battle by the travellers themselves, prepared to accept the concept and list that precious site but it has no direct ability, given that the UK, but not Scotland, holds Unesco membership, to secure a more formal acceptance of such things.

That is also why Scottish nominations for World Heritage sites, a global designation, have to be mediated through London, which is somewhat parsimonious in its willingness to include obvious candidates north of the Border.

There is also no official UK engagement with World Art Day which is perhaps understandable given the encouragement by the international body of what it calls “artivists”, that is artists and creators who use their talents for alleviating suffering, promoting peace and preventing war. Those ambitions, uncontroversial as they should be, do not sit well with a government that is demonising refugees whilst seeking to silence alternative voices, even those that assert the rule of law.

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An approach that regards religious leaders, lawyers and indeed most “experts” as enemies of the people is hardly going to take warmly to criticism by people with paint brushes, musical instruments or word processors.

The Unesco definition of “artist” is a wide one and celebrations on World Art Day take in not just the visual arts but all creativity and also art education in which connection it was encouraging to find one website by an English-based arts education body promoting World Arts Day – though I could find nothing in or for Scotland. Fortunately, though, whilst official designation may be helpful and encouraging, particularly when commitment flags, the truth is that arts and activism don’t need it to exist or achieve. If the impulse and desire are there, then creativity will drive through as surely as water will find its way downhill.

What is always needed is for good people to do good things, with an emphasis both on “doing” and “good”. As Thomas Hardy reminded a would-be writer, he had known 20 young men with the same aim when he was young. He was though the only one who became a writer because, as he put it, he actually sat down and wrote. I was reminded of that imperative by two interlinked local things in Cowal this week.

On Monday I attended the launch of the third edition of a book of oral reminiscences of the American nuclear presence at the Holy Loch which lasted from 1961 to 1992.

The first two editions of Andrene Messersmith’s excellent and emotive book The American Years were sold out, largely because there is a good independent bookshop in Dunoon which cares about local titles and local writing. The publisher was also local, the much respected Argyll Publishing run by Derek Roger who, like me, was meant to have retired but who is still keen to get small-scale authors and their books read no matter the many challenges which now include the tyranny of cut-price internet promotion and sales.

The second reminder came directly from the first.

Later in the week, Derek sent me a copy of a piece I had written in my Herald Cultural column nearly 20 years ago about the funeral of Gregor Roy who founded the bookshop in Dunoon where we had been just a few days before. It reminded me anew of the good work that he did, that Derek is still doing and that so many others, largely unsung, go on doing to ensure that creativity is recognised and supported in order to improve the life and the health of those around them.

In other words to keep going, no matter the difficulties and downsides because it is always worth it for its own sake as well as for the wider benefit it will bring. Perhaps there is a message in there for Scottish politics too.