The arts are valued most when life is most perplexing. After two years of disruption Platform Papers, the industry journal for the performing arts in Australia, returns under new editors. The New Platform Papers are essays at the intersection of culture, politics and satire, commissioned by Currency House. In the first issue of this volume, Imagination, the Arts and Economics, philosopher Richard Bronk, economist John Quiggin, satirist Jonathan Biggins and Pub Choir director, Astrid Jorgensen, explore the unique role the arts can play in shaping the future as Australia reopens after a turbulent global pandemic. This volume also includes Platform Paper no. 63, the final essay in the original series, by our founder and patron, Katharine Brisbane. On the Lessons of History looks back over the last twenty years through the work of all our essay authors, to explore why the arts have been marginalised in government policy and the media. The times demand a radical change in our way of thinking about what ‘the economy’ and ‘creativity’ mean in the plan for national recovery. What Future for the Arts in a post-Pandemic World? draws urgent attention to the opportunity the creative arts present for cultural and social transformation beyond Covid-19.