How is art changing you and the world?

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Why is art so important? Is it really that important? You will hear many people saying that art is useless. It is nice to look at a beautiful painting or a sculpture, it is pleasant, but it is not going to change your life. It is not going to reduce famine and poverty in the world, it is not going to pay your bills or end the war in Syria. They are right. Art is another thing that is not going to just “fix” the world's problems over night.

Actually, art has a far bigger meaning for the world than feeding people's basic needs for food and survival. In nowadays society, we always want to see the “material and immediate” result of something – we want to see it, to touch it, to be sure that it is there, that it exists, that we are not loosing our time on something useless. And we want it now! Quickly. When it comes to art and its impact on people, it is hard to say what the particular results of it would be. It is very hard to quantify art's results by giving precise numbers. We can not measure art or its impact. Every person is different and their perception of what they see as a piece of art is very different and unique as well. This is why it is very complicated to say what art is and what is not. Everything could be art, depending on how it is presented to us.

So, here is the first question to answer : What is actually art? According to the Oxford Dictionaries, art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. So, from this definition I understand that when we speak of art, we talk about being “creative” and maybe “talented”(we often hear that only talented people should make art), using the power of our “imagination” in order to create something “beautiful” that has an emotional power and in result, it is going to be appreciated, I guess, by people's “emotional reaction” to it. Not very precise, a little bit confusing and vague. What is being creative? Who is a creative person and who is not? What is beautiful? What is not? What kind of emotional reaction do we talk about? Do we need to have the “right” emotional reaction to an art piece? Is art only for certain people? Only for the people who can understand it? Who are they?

For many years people have believed that art is some sort of a luxury pleasure for the rich population of the world. Only wealthy and well educated people have had access to art. They were the ones going to balls, concerts, opera, ballet, theater, reading books and poems and listening to classical music. It exists this belief that only the elite, the rich, can understand art and apparently, can have an “emotional reaction” to it. Somehow, art is associated to a certain higher social class. Centuries ago, it was the aristocrats who had the time and the money to go to balls, concerts and museums. Today, these are the middle and upper class people. They are educated enough to see and understand the beauty of it, but also to have access to it. They can afford it. They also need to stick to some social norms like being well dressed up and having certain manners like being quiet, polite, not laughing or speaking too laud, knowing when to applause and when not to... well, knowing when to move, speak, smile or do any other kind of physical activity.

Now, what about the poor? Don't they have the right to go to a museum and have an “emotional reaction” to a painting or a sculpture? Maybe they are not capable of that? Some people will say that poor have their own culture and art like folk music and folk concerts, rap, jazz music, street art as they were all born on the streets of poor neighborhoods. This is very true, but it does not mean that poor and not educated people are incapable of having a reaction to a Van Gogh painting. Maybe it is not going to be the “usual” or the “right” reaction, but who are we to say how people should react to anything? Everybody has their own vision and understanding about life and what surrounds us based on their personal experience and beliefs.

So how is art capable of changing the world? In my work, I interact with people living in extreme poverty – children and adults, and I always try to make sure that they have access to art and culture, in general, like every other person in the world. I do this by bringing them beautiful and new books, going with them to classical concerts and to museums, painting, creating “useless”, but pretty objects together. For me, art and culture are fundamental, crucial for the development of our society and the evolving of people as strong and independent individuals. Here I give you 15 reasons why art is so important for the world, how is changing people's lives and why every person, even those who live in extreme poverty and don't know how to read or write, needs to have access to it.

Art makes you feel something.

It is true that art has an emotional power and provokes emotional reactions. When we stand in front of a painting or a sculpture, we feel something. It could be positive, negative or... difficult to explain, but we feel it. We know when we like or not something, when we don't understand or we are curious about it. We don't have always the right words to explain our feelings, but this does not mean that they are not there.

From my work with people who live in poverty, I see this all the time. When we go to a museum, people don't always have the right words, or any words to explain how a piece of art made them feel, but you can see the emotions in theirs eyes and in the way the look at it. They admire art, even if they don't always quite “understand” it.

Emotions are a part of what makes us human. Through art people develop their emotional intelligence. We don't talk a lot about it, but it is very important to accept and express our feelings and emotions, to recognize them and be conscious about their existence. They are beautiful, no matter if we consider them as positive or negative. Many people, unfortunately, suppress and hide them. We need to learn how to understand and work on our emotions. It helps us to know better who we are.

Sometimes, when I work with poor children who don't know how to read or don't have any books at home, I see them caressing the books I brought for them. They find them beautiful and they pay so much attention – they try to keep them clean, they take the time to look at the images... these moments make me think that every person has certain sensibility to beauty. Every person appreciates beauty. People who think that poor and not educated folks don't understand art are very wrong. Yes, maybe they will not put the right words and explain what they feel or think about a painting, but it doesn't mean that nothing happens inside them.

Art develops imagination and creativity.

Art makes us imagine. It could be a painting, a sculpture, a book, a poem... it makes you imagine a different world or a different time, a different life, different situations and people. It makes you travel in time. Sometimes it is good to forget about the hard reality and to loose yourself in your imagination for a moment.

We often say that children have to keep their imagination alive. Why? Because this is how they start dreaming. This is how we start having dreams about the life we want to have and the people we want to become. When we were children we all had some literature idols that we wanted to be like. And this is because art inspires us. Art turns on our inspiration drive. We want to become like this literature hero, we want to go to this place on the beautiful painting we see, we too want to try making a sculpture (maybe from modeling clay), we too want to learn how to draw so well. Art makes us want to improve our skills, to become better and to achieve more in life. It makes people dream. And every great life starts with a great dream!

Art entertains people, makes them happy and gives them hope.

For many people maybe the first goal of art is to entertain. And they are right. When we go to a museum, an opera, a concert... we want to be entertained. We want to see something beautiful, according to our understanding of beauty, we want to feel something, we want to live an experience. Going to a cultural event is not just passing some time by, it is living a life experience. We want to feel empowered, inspired and moved by what we see.

It is interesting to mention that even when we see a sad theater play, watch a sad movie, read a sad book or listen to a sad song, we still like this experience and it makes us happy after all. Why? It was sad right? It made us cry? Well, even after crying in the end of a movie drama, we still like it because it moved us, it made us feel something so powerful that we even cried. Isn't it incredible? Even the sad experience makes us happy.

Another thing about art is that it gives people hope. It makes us believe that something better will come along and that we can deal with every life challenge like the hero in the movie just did. Very often, we relate our personal story to what we see. We don't have to forget that after all, art is a result of what people live, feel and deal with in life. Artists find inspiration in observing what happens around them – the people they meet, the feelings they have, the beauty they see in the world. They are not so different from me and you, they are just like us.

Art helps people connect.

It is incredible how culture reunites people from across the globe. The exposition of let's say a Chinese artist is in France where people who don't even speak Chinese and have never been to China can see it. They can see what he/she did and know him/her a little bit better even if they will never meet in person. Artists reveal their passions, theirs struggles, theirs emotions and preoccupations through their art which allows us to have the feeling that we know them. If their art matches with the way we feel or we see the world, we have a connection. And if you think about it, it is quite incredible how we can have a connection with someone that we have never met.

Art also makes people connect when they create something together. Often, I organize summer festivals in poor neighborhoods with the people who live their. It is amazing to see how creating something with another person makes you feel closer to them. When we do something together we spend some time, we interact, talk and share opinions and life experiences. After all, it brings us closer to each other. Art is our way out of exclusion! We live in such a hostile society, we are so scared to open up to people. Art tells us to be open, to share, to be vulnerable and to make people happy. Art shows us the beauty of being human – sometimes weak, sometimes strong, sometimes sad, sometimes disappointed, but never loosing hope.

Art provokes curiosity and excitement.

Sometimes art can be difficult to understand. Sometimes it doesn't match with our understanding of life or our values and beliefs. It makes us ask questions, being curious, trying to figure out the idea behind it. Why did the artist think like that? What did he/she think while creating this piece of art? What did he/she want to say to us? Where is the hidden sens? Sometimes it looks like the artist didn't have any particular idea. For example, The Sunflowers by Van Gogh – these are “just” some sunflowers in a vase, but if you have an art expert next to you, they will tell you a thousand things about this collection of paintings and the idea behind the sunflowers.

Or, why is Mona Lisa one of the most famous paintings in the world? Why is she smiling like that? Did she do something? And she's the only one to know about it? You want to know! Maybe this is why this painting is so popular and you have kilometers of people standing on line to see it.

Art is mysterious and it is all about asking questions and being curious. And wanting to find the answer is exciting!

For some people this is the only way to express themselves.

It is amazing how art can transform sometimes people. I know people who are extremely shy and never talk, but when they start singing, we are all ears. This is the moment you really see human's strength and how art allows you to show it to the world. Working with many people who can not read or write makes me notice that often for them it is way easier to express themselves with a song, or a drawing, or a photo... They don't necessarily have the words to tell us what they think or feel, but they can show us. This is how they communicate the best.

It is not because someone has a poor vocabulary that this is a stupid person. We just haven't found the right way to connect with them yet. You don't need words and language to understand art. The language of art is universal. Every person from all over the world, no matter their education and social background can understand it.

Art develops our brain activity and makes us think.

Yes! Sometimes, I look at a painting and I just can not figure it out. Like, yesterday I went to a modern art museum and the paintings from the cubism were like coming from a whole different planet to me. Does this mean that I gave up and moved on to something else? Hell, no! I stayed there for maybe at least 30 minutes, reading every small explanation notice under the paintings so I could understand something and have some ideas why the artist wanted to show us exactly this “weird” thing. I was curious, I wanted to know!

The thing is that we don't need to have the “right” answer, we can only suppose what the artist might has wanted to say. This is not so important. What is important is that it makes your brain work, think, analyze, look for every small detail, connect the dots and see what we often initially don't see.

Art is the food for our souls.

We need beautiful things to look at. We need beauty in our life. Of course, our conception of what is beautiful and what is not, is very relative, it depends on the person's taste, but anyways, it is a pleasure to look at something beautiful. It makes our heart sings like love does. When people see something that they find pretty, they know it is something important, valuable, worthy. They want to keep it that way, they pay attention to it.

Often, people think that poor can not appreciate art masterpieces, but I can assure you that they can. We don't need to have a degree on history of art to say when we see a beautiful painting or a sculpture. We can feel it by the forms, the colors, the shapes, the way it makes us feel. Art connects to our heart and soul. It tells us a story and it does not even use words for that (not always). Art makes our life meaningful. From my experience with people who live in poverty, I see all the time the opposite of what many people think, that poor need only food and clothing. They don't need only that! They also need beauty. We all do. And we need it not only once in a while. We need it every single day like we need food every day. Without beauty in our lives, we don't live, we just exist.

Without art, the world would be even more hostile than it is now.

Without art and beauty in our lives, we are no different than animals. We become savages who only need to feed theirs basic needs. This is not a normal life. Since the world exists people have always experienced moments of joy while singing and dancing around the fire, painting on the walls in mountain caves, sewing beautiful cloths, painting theirs faces, making accessories. The sens of beauty lies in every person's soul. This is the soft side of one's personality. Without it, we are heartless, hostile, always ready to attack and fight, we see everybody as an enemy... we forget how to be good.

Art is a form of propaganda for what really matters.

Art is a way to express not only our feelings and emotions, but also to make statements about a world problem that concerns us. Art can be a form of propaganda to show what is really important in life, what matters in society and how people should see the world.

A great way to use art as propaganda are caricatures. They show people in a very humorous way what is often going on in politics, in the economy, in the world in general. It is amazing how they can tell us what the illustrator thinks in a very funny and at the same time very smart way.

Also, almost every artist in the world will always try to express their opinion about a political situation or a world problem through their art. It is fascinating how an artist can find a whole different way to point our attention to a specific issue and to make us look at it from a whole different perspective.

Art makes the world and people become better.

Artists show us how they see life. How every feeling, emotion, life event, concern, personal or world issue are a part of our journey on this planet. They show us that beauty is everywhere, even in the ugly and sad stuff.

Art wakes up our sensitive side and our desire to seek the beauty and what matters. After all, we can not say that art is not making this world more playful, colorful and mindful. It is a very entertaining way to learn about life.

Art should be for everyone.

Despite what most people think, art is still not for everybody, even though some museums are free some days of the year. Unfortunately, many people still don't feel good about theaters, museums, opera houses etc. They see them like big institutions where only certain people are allowed to go in. Many people still think that they are not educated enough or they are not dressed up well enough to go to places where they can see art. People who are poor think that “this is not for them”. Actually, art is for everybody and it should be for everybody, even for people who live on the street.

However, this is not what we see in reality. Often art galleries, museums, theaters and opera houses are very fancy, clean, luxurious... they look expensive. For many people this is a barrier. Even if it is free to go inside, they will not do it because they think that they will not fit in. Also, people who work at this kind of places should be more open and try to welcome everybody the same way, without having prejudice or being judgmental. Everybody deserves real access to art and culture. Unfortunately, it is not because it is free, that it is accessible!

It is difficult to qualify and quantify art. Art is life.

It is not easy to say what is the real impact of art in numbers and stats. We can't say how a painting changed someone's vision about life. We can't say what emotions someone had when they looked at a sculpture. Actually, we can, but we have to ask them personally. And if we ask other people about the same piece of art, the answer may be different.

Art is a very personal and intimate experience – for the artist, but also for the observer. We all go through different emotions and feelings when we are in front of a masterpiece or a normal drawing. This is why it is so difficult to say how art touches people's soul. For some it will be funny, for others it will be sad and ugly, maybe even disgusting, bizarre... we don't know, but what we know is that something happens inside for sure.

Art is freedom – freedom of feelings, emotions, thoughts, visions, beliefs, colors, shapes, forms, materials. Art is also an opportunity – to meet new people, to connect, to think, to learn something new, to see the world from a different angle, to see a different “beauty”, to explore, to discover, to live a new life experience. Art is a surprise – you don't know what to expect. Sometimes you will be fascinated and you will want some more of it and sometimes, you will be disappointed, sad, you will have the feeling that you lost your time and money. Well, I think art is like life and we should live our lives as making art - with joy, fun, colors, observations, curiosity, tears, gratitude and love. Elena