An international webinar on art was held on Saturday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Themed "Art and Sustainable Development," a dozen artists, scholars and experts from various art industries, and UNESCO officials at home and abroad delivered speeches during the meeting, discussing how art can bridge cultures and help achieve global consensus and sustainable development.

The two-hour webinar opened with a video, "Body & Mind United in Dance on the Same Earth," featuring the performances of dancers from different countries around the world. The cooperative piece shows how artists have been working hard during the pandemic and delivering strength to people through art.

Ye Xiaogang, vice president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) and president of the Chinese Musicians' Association, delivered a keynote speech. He believes that the depth and width of cultural exchanges across the world are proportionate to the speed of human social development.

"Today, culture can educate people and improve people's livelihoods, it is also increasingly becoming an important approach to promote balanced economic and social development," he said.

"We need to adhere to globalization and multilateralism, strengthen exchanges and interactions of culture and art among different civilizations, and get closer to each other," said Du Zhanyuan, president of the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, the co-sponsor of the webinar alongside the CFLAC.

"We wish to see the vision of 'diversity, equality and inclusiveness' between civilizations become the striking feature and an intrinsic part of contemporary art exchanges and development," he added.

In face of issues like COVID-19, climate change, and inequalities, countries need to work together to address them and the collective response must be multifaceted, which requires the cooperation of the political, scientific and technical, and art circles, said Olga Algayerova, under-secretary-general and executive secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

"Diversity of cultural identity is a vital resource for our intergovernmental work. It permits and reaches even the most technical discussions. It also profoundly shapes the physical environment in which we operate," she said.

The United Nations, an intergovernmental organization, was established after World War II in 1945. In the sustainable development goals proposed by the United Nations, art can play a unique role in such content as "good health and well-being," "quality education," "gender equality," "bridging gaps" and "sustainable cities and communities."

(Video "Body & Mind United in Dance on the Same Earth" features the performances of dancers from different countries around the world during the coronavirus pandemic. /Courtesy of International Webinar on Art for Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations)