What Good is Art?

Ah, there is hope for us. He turns to Ellen Dissanayake’s book, What is Art For? (another book you should read), to help develop his idea of, “art as something done, not consumed, and done by ordinary people, not master-spirits.” He also cites authorities who have studied and experimented with the use of art in developing self-esteem, self-discipline, patience and perseverance in young people.

I’m right behind Carey when he encourages “active” art. I have always believed that we are all artists and whatever anyone does with passion and thoughtfulness can be considered art. In fact, although I have to use them all the time, I’m a little uncomfortable with the terms “art” and “artist” because I don’t really believe that only a select group of people are artists. Putting one’s mark on one’s work or surroundings is an inherently human thing to do, a characteristic that is not completely unique to our species, but is certainly rare.

Yet I can’t agree with everything Carey says. It’s true that art has been commodified and sanctified and all of the other things he accuses art snobs of doing, but there is still a reason to go and see the creative efforts of others. Participation in the arts includes experiencing and reflecting on someone else’s expression. There would be little point in creating something that expressed your views on a topic if there were no one willing to “listen” to what you had to say.

So the question still remains, if you’re still with me and have accepted that we are all artists: How can art make us better people? What good is it?

It may be that the answer is that the arts are only as important as the human race. Art only matters to us. It is a uniquely human response to the experience of life. It is how we translate ideas and emotions too complex and difficult to summarize, so they must be explored again and again in myriad ways. It is the only way we have of continuing the process of questioning, learning and bettering ourselves as a species.

It does not always lead us to the right answers and it certainly does not always make us better. (Hitler was a painter and a great patron of the arts; Picasso was a misogynist.) But without it, we wouldn’t go anywhere. We would not be capable of explaining our collective understanding of existence to our children. This understanding may be faulty, but it is all we have to offer to our children, and without it, they cannot continue on from there but must start all over from square one.

Debbie and I did not meet on Sept. 11, 2001, but we did go ahead with our planning and the Harvest of the Arts happened as scheduled. In the end, I came to the conclusion that it was important because if we didn’t do things like that, it would leave only the bombings, war and destruction. I can’t stop people from killing each other, but I can do everything in my power to counter it and to celebrate the beauty of life.

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