Books made me a better person. Good books make us think about our ethics, morals, they paint a true and honest picture of humanity and force us to think about the kind of person we are and who we'd like to be. The same holds true for good music, movies and art. There is something ennobling in each of these, something that stirs the better selves in each of us. Music transports us, lifts beyond the here and now into a better place, a place where we feel more alive. Books make us reflect and introspect. They make us take a pause from reading to digest the profoundness of what we just read. Movies make us cry and laugh and "feel good" as we walk out of the movie halls.
What this powerful pull is I can't name, but there is something about art (and I am using this umbrella word to cover all the forms of art - visual, audio, literary, sensory, that I just discussed) that cold, hard science and commerce just can't match. We need our scientists and bankers of course, but we need our artists and actors and writers just as much.
There used to be a time when I didn't think art amounted to much. What a waste of time, I would say, when I heard of someone spending years on a novel. How pointless, I would say, when people would urge me to visit the Arts Museum. Poetry, paintings and sculpture were too dense for me to understand. Prose, movies and music were more accessible to me. But I have come to realize that art, be it in any form, can be beautiful and uplifting, if we can train ourselves to see the beauty where it does exist. Have someone explain the underlying meaning behind a poem, and it lights the bulb in my mind. The poem is not just exquisite lyricism, it is also a metaphor for something deeper and more pertinent to life! Then I re-read it again, relishing this time the intelligence and aesthetics of the poetry. Help me understand what a painting symbolizes, and again, I look at the painting this time with much appreciation.
The point I am trying to make is this - if you think it is a waste of time, energy and matter to fund the Violinists Association of Johannesburg when there are people starving in Nairobi, you are right. It is important to fulfill the basic needs of food, water and safety, and that is the priority of human endeavor, but once those needs are fulfilled, art ranks right at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - the need of self actualization. Art is a form of self-expression for the creator and a form of catharsis for the patron. The world needs good art, and we all would do well to remember that.
What this powerful pull is I can't name, but there is something about art (and I am using this umbrella word to cover all the forms of art - visual, audio, literary, sensory, that I just discussed) that cold, hard science and commerce just can't match. We need our scientists and bankers of course, but we need our artists and actors and writers just as much.
There used to be a time when I didn't think art amounted to much. What a waste of time, I would say, when I heard of someone spending years on a novel. How pointless, I would say, when people would urge me to visit the Arts Museum. Poetry, paintings and sculpture were too dense for me to understand. Prose, movies and music were more accessible to me. But I have come to realize that art, be it in any form, can be beautiful and uplifting, if we can train ourselves to see the beauty where it does exist. Have someone explain the underlying meaning behind a poem, and it lights the bulb in my mind. The poem is not just exquisite lyricism, it is also a metaphor for something deeper and more pertinent to life! Then I re-read it again, relishing this time the intelligence and aesthetics of the poetry. Help me understand what a painting symbolizes, and again, I look at the painting this time with much appreciation.
The point I am trying to make is this - if you think it is a waste of time, energy and matter to fund the Violinists Association of Johannesburg when there are people starving in Nairobi, you are right. It is important to fulfill the basic needs of food, water and safety, and that is the priority of human endeavor, but once those needs are fulfilled, art ranks right at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - the need of self actualization. Art is a form of self-expression for the creator and a form of catharsis for the patron. The world needs good art, and we all would do well to remember that.
