Ars gratia artis…..?

So – I was recently in a position to have to EXPLAIN why art was important in a community. My immediate response was…well DUH, and my second was…because art is important because it’s ART. What other reason could a person possibly need?

In that moment and for these purposes that answer did not cut it. At all. And I found myself having to examine and articulate one of the driving ideals of my life. Because a life without art is a life bereft. Period.

Here is what I came to…My why art matters to you even if you don’t think it does manifesto.

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Art is important to a community because it is crucial for the soul and mind of a person to be nourished and engaged, and it is from engaged people with minds open to growth and change that a community is built. Without creative discourse, challenging thought and common experiences, a full-fledged community never develops, simply people who live in the same geographical area. Art provides us, by its nature, the fertilizer to let a community blossom. It is a social outlet, a political outlet, an emotional outlet. Art can shine the light on the truth before it can be spoken aloud in a literal fashion. A community without art, is not quite a community at all.

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I once had a well-educated** adult tell me that she “didn’t like culture. ” Now – to each their own, but when she said this I was so stunned that I couldn’t even respond. To run into a person who would admit this without shame, or any sense of the place of art in the universe, it was as if someone had told me the earth WAS actually flat, the idea was so foreign.

I suspect I will have occasion to run into her again. If this comes up – I will give her my little manifesto. And a book.

**"Well-educated" is obviously debatable, given the rest of this, but she had more, and more expensive degrees than I did, from more well-respected schools.