We are half way through the year and this is a great time to check in with what you want from the remaining 6 months of the year and what you are going to:
START
STOP
BELIEVE
If you are feeling defeated, I highly recommend checking in with why your art matters! This can give you the fuel to keep going. Don’t underestimate the power your art has on yourself and others.
For our first edition of our magazine, we asked the Artwork Archive to write an article and they covered this very subject matter – why we need art during difficult times.
Art allows us…
…..to examine what it means to be human, to voice and express, and to bring people and ideas together.
We are still experiencing a global pandemic, a year into COVID-19. In difficult times, we need humanity, expression, and the community that the arts create.
This is a time to value the arts. Whether big or small, sidewalk chalk art or community murals, art makes a difference in how we live our lives.
The arts create wellness in our day-to-day lives by helping us process our lives individually and allowing us to come together collectively. Art allows us to communicate from afar, generating positivity, appreciation and hope during COVID-19 and beyond.
Art matters. Here’s why:
Art is an expression of what it means to be human
Art-making and viewing art allows us to process our experiences. It helps us to express and to understand the world around us.
We define our human experience by the cultures we create and participate in. Culture, made up of customs, social interactions and activities, is fueled by the arts. Be it music, food or visual arts, culture and the arts are inseparable.
Art fosters understanding between communities
Over the course of the last year, we saw art being used as a tool to create stronger communities. Art allows us to not just understand ourselves, but to understand each other on a deeper level.
Going online has encouraged us to engage with online arts in a way to connect more deeply with current issues and events. There are a multitude of ways to experience the arts virtually. Museums moved their exhibits online, and virtual galleries are hosting online show openings and artist talks.
Art is good for our health
Art is a proven tool for stress reduction and well-being. Art has promoted health within our homes during COVID-19 as families have been getting creative at home. As we are spending more time by ourselves during this pandemic, art and craft-making have rocketed.
Public art allows us to see ourselves and our identities within a larger society and to feel comfortable in our surroundings.
Art can be a public health tool during COVID-19
Art helps to quickly communicate ideas through memorable visuals.
Public art can be used as a directive tool in a crisis to benefit our general wellbeing. When artists create public art featuring masks to reflect our current experiences, they send a powerful message to the public.
Art guides and signals how people should interact and behave within a space. Visual clues help us understand how we fit into a space and make statements about what a community values.
Art helps us express gratitude during difficult times
While we are not able to congregate with friends and families as we usually would as we live through this pandemic, art allows us to create a message of gratitude from a distance.
Artists of all types and from all over the world have been creating artworks that thank essential workers and healthcare workers.
Art makes close-to-home spaces more meaningful
Artists are rising to the occasion with art projects centered on themes of coronavirus and quarantine. Banksy playfully interpreted his stay-at-home life with a topsy turvy work from home cane in his bathroom. Banksy typically creates large-scale public artworks. His work-from-home scene shows rats wreaking havoc in his real-life apartment complete with his mirror askew and rats treadmilling on toilet paper rolls and swinging from hand towel rings.
Art Allows us to Document & Process Events
World events are often remembered through what comes to be iconic artwork.
More and more, art is appearing around the United States and the world to document our experiences over the last year. Art helps to make social justice visible and document movements – it is able to rally support and create a sense of community in times of crisis.
We need the arts in difficult times.
Art gives us immeasurable personal and social benefits. We rely on the arts to help us through difficult times.
Art reminds us that we are not alone and that we share a universal human experience. Through art, we feel deep emotions together and are able to process experiences, find connections and create impact.
Art helps us to record and process more than just individual experiences.
These are points taken from the Artwork Archive article – read the full article here.
Remember
Remember creating is important and there are so many people throughout the world who need art, love art and appreciate art.
Keep creating. Keep making.
Much love,
Michelle x.
