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What do you value about the arts?
Some people are passionate about the arts, going to a wide range of events and exhibitions and taking part in creative activities as often as they can. For others, the arts are a part of the fabric of their lives, something to be enjoyed with friends and family when the occasion arises. Some people don’t think of themselves as interested in the arts, even though they might go to the cinema, listen to music and read books. So what do the arts mean to you?
What arts activities do you enjoy? What do you get from those experiences, and why are they important to you? What role do the arts play in your life, and how is your life different as a result? Is there anything you would change about your involvement with the arts?
Are the arts important in your local community? If so, why? If not, why not? What role do the arts play in national life? Would you like to see the arts play a different role? And what are your expectations and hopes for the arts in the future?
The arts are important to me because they are a documentation of contemporary response to the world we inhabit. Arts that communicate directly with communities are of particular interest to me personally. While I also feel the benefit of highly conceptualised art myself, I understand that the majority of people that live without art in their lives would feel alienated and perhaps patronised by some of this art. I also think that there is a place for many types of artform as the predeliction towards a certain type of artform can always be challenged and therefore open an individuals mind to the possibility of creative interaction and its benefits.
After the basic needs of food shelter and love the next most important human need is art.
Arts is in everything we do, conversation, cooking, lovemaking, running decorating the home. Every night our subconscious becomes a film producer hires a cast props and sets and puts on plays for us. We call this dreaming. We don?t understand why but it feeds our souls. We make vibrations in the air which make us happy or sad or jump about in strange ways; we call this music and dance. We don?t understand what these vibrations are but we need them. Art when you look at it closely is very strange stuff
It is hard to bear this thought, but the experience of life can be completely void of meaning. We come to this planet and we go. We get old but we still feel young. There is much pain and loss in every life and it is often pointless. Time is passing and we are all going to the same fate. But we struggle against this. We surround ourselves with domesticity family, love, projects and ambitions and art. Arts may not be able to change this condition but Art is one of the most important ways we make meaning and a sense of meaning. We alleviate the human condition with great bursts of laughter, out of body experiences flights of imagination and intense emotional empathies. We raise peaks of memorable experience out of the flatlands. Art is one of the most important strategies for dealing with the strangeness of human life.
The other day I saw a young mother with her baby in a papoose dancing down the street to the music of a street band. That was art working at the most important level .oxygen for the soul?The lady and her baby were flying on a magic carpet of art. They were sailing through the hum drum consumerism of the shopping street in an ecstasy of movement and joy. The individual ecstatic experience is one of the most valuable things about art. The other is the communal experience of art which takes us out of our smaller identity and gives us a mystical feeling of belonging. We may feel this in a great music concert or in the immersive experience a large scale open air performance.
The ecstasy of art can keep us connected to life's mystery in a secular world. Art can also process politics?help us comprehend issues and comment on every aspect of life. But at the core the imagination is a challenge to the real and a rejection of the tedious. Life without it is unimaginable. However socially beneficial the arts may be no one should demand that they are lashed to social agendas because ironically art as a slave becomes surly and useless. Art is always strange and paradoxical and only enhances the human condition as a strange bi-product of its freedom.
Art is god.
Ok I'd better qualify that statement before i am accused of blasphemy.
The concept of art is akin to the concept of a god. Both are intangible beings that defy definition. They require an element of faith, in order to turn an inocuous gesture into a political statement, or a beautiful dance move, to take us from the material and practical earth and lift us to something higher.
Furthermore, as people choose to worship a god, or ignore a god, in their own ways, so people have a multiude of expressions and approaches to art. I suspect no two people have exactly the same experience or concept of art, no matter what training or influence they have had, because Art reflects our life and life reflects our art.
Art cannot be soley defined by purpose, or by form, or by content, or by censorship, or by history, or by audience, or by humanity, but by all of these things, and probably more that come together as a cry of the soul.
Maybe that's what it is. A cry of the soul. Anyone fancy trying to define what the soul is?
The phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder must be a funding decision-makers nightmare. We all place different value on different art according to our experience.
Good luck!
art is central to the basic human need for development of cultural identity. Foe many people personal involvement is of central importance. This can be expressed through 'doing' sustained by enthusiasm, skill and self motivation and by 'seeing' developing appreciation, understanding and providing the important audiences all disciplines of the arts need. it fulfils the need to integrate cultural activity into every significant aspect of social and economic life, to meet local need and keep an identty within the wider global community.
The best thing about art today is the way that youngsters are encrouching onto the artistic scene.
The arts are a means of human expression. Everybody can do it (it doesn't mean that what is produced need be good). The best examples of it demonstrate what human wit, ingenuity or craft can create, in a lasting form that speaks to other people. Anything other than this is starting to veer towards pretension. Art isn't important in itself.
The arts - enabling us to look back at moments in time. Allowing a glimpse of what lies ahead and drawing us together in today.
One of the defining aspects of human kind. It needs to be treasured and developed in all its many forms.
I do not think of myself as an artist. I value art as something that can offer us all something of an escape from the nitty-gritty essentials of living. Relax by listening to some favourite music. Lose yourself in the surroundings of a picture gallery. Burn off some calories and dance to a new tune. Life can be tough for us all be it just finding the resources to pay bills or the more complex challenges of handling relationships with other people. Stuff that we might call Art generally isn't essential to life, but when we can experience it in its wide and vaired forms we have an opportunity to let our emotions work. Art can shock, please, mystify, satisfy, amuse. I value all of these possibilities. But let's not get too wound up by Art. Take it too seriously and we risk losing our grip on reality.
For me, the arts provide an opportunity to breathe. I have an eclectic taste which takes me to rock concerts,to art galleries, to ballet & to West End shows, through radio, TV, cinema and iTunes. There are a lot of people for whom the daily routine provides less joy and excitement than others experience but, on a day when there's a ballet in town, I'm upbeat, enthusiastic and excited. So I work better, enjoy my life more and develop another point of view.
Where I come from, many people agree that this backdrop is stimulating, both for the community and for the local economy. Why would anyone want to locate a new business in an area that reeks of apathy ? But, where there is a strong and vibrant local arts scene you have an enthusiastic and interesting community.
I've often observed huge crowds queuing in the cold and the rain to visit a new 'expo' in Paris and wondered what Britain would be like if we had the same level of interest and commitment to the arts.
I am a consumer of art because I'm not blessed with the necessary skills needed to create art. As such I need art because to me it seems to be a pursuit that results in life-affirming creation. The human imagination is endlessly creative; this forms a continuum throughout history that links us with lives lived and should humble our pretensions to allknowingness. When I look at a Da Vinci portrait or listen to a Montiverdi motet I'm aware of their inherent beauty, probably in a different way to contemporary viewers and listeners, but we both share a commonality of enjoyment that transcends time. Contemporary art could be doing for our age what others will enjoy in the distant future. This is what I value about the arts.
What do I value about art?
One cannot value that which is entwined into the human condition. From cave paintings to a Japanese tea ceremony we, as humans, can transform the hum drum and routine into a spiritual experience. The Pretentious and the self obsessed claim to "know" art but In the presence of true art, in whatever form, each person on the planet can be aware of , and lifted into, shared experiences trancending all perceived boundaries into which each becomes a whole. Binding our species as one life. There is no value on priceless.
Arts are a gift from God, a way in which we can outwardly express all that is in our hearts.
The arts are provocative and therein lies their value. Everyone has an opinion on the arts, providing a great talking point. Participatory arts, where people are hands-on and feel ownership, provoke learning and personal progression. For me, this is the most valuable aspect of the arts - where other methods fail, good quality arts activities bring communities together for communication, achievement and enjoyment.
I suppose that among the many things I love about all the arts is the strange paradox they always throw back at me: that they seem so inherently anarchic, unpredictable and unmanageable (a word I use advisedly, writing from within a Business School), while at the same time they are always, urgently, trying to give shape and meaning to greater or lesser lumps of the clay of human existence ? as if new order was everything and as if nobody had quite got the shape and meaning right before now.
Having grown up in a country that sometimes seems obsessed with not just art but with design - "formgivning", "giving shape", is the Danish noun - perhaps I was just "damaged at birth", as it were, and learned at an early age that although there were possibly no decent chairs before Hans Wegner designed his, you owe it to yourself and to your behind always to try out new ones.
So, maybe that is what I like about the arts: the way they encourage you not to accept the status quo, always to experiment, expect that there is another challenge around the corner; as well as a wealth of earlier attempts, a long tradition of endeavouring to "lend shape", a heritage of aesthetic effort.
It is one of the glories of living in my own shape-shifting city of "NewcastleGateshead" that it has decided to grow a shimmering layer of modern arts over its industrial heritage, a history that still shines through but which has become "heritage" rather than the foundation of our lives here. That was a surprise and a gift to somebody who came to the UK in the dark winter of 1979 as one of Thatcher's shivering immigrants. It is not the whole meaning of our lives here, but it is part of their meaning and accounts for a great deal of their shape. Creativity is not everything but without it - in our streets, museums, galleries, schools, business, tourism - we would be much less.
Let us expand this... a better question that a wider audience would understand would be
'What do you value about creativity?'
the books you read
the poems you write
the television you watch
the stories you make
the computer games you design
the songs you sing
the quilts you make
the bread you bake
the cartoons you draw
the scribbles you make
the styles you wear
the beat you make
the dance you leap
the pose you take
...all of it is art and creativity...the infusion of imagination into the world and we can't live healthily without it.
An afternoon spent with people in extremely rural communities who are having fun working together and at the same time creating some artistic piece which will form part of tomorrows history, should be sufficient to remind the cinics amongst us of the true value of the arts. FANTASTIC!
The (creative) arts industry provides me with an income to help support my family! Long may this continue!
A sensational work of art can leave lasting impressions on my mind, enough to render me speechless. I think it's important to let art take over a little bit because it's a chance to appreciate our own sensitivity and somebody else's creativity. It seems that there are few moments when we can really escape 'the present' but I think the few times I have, have been facilitated by art.
This is all very nice - but "art" should mean engaging with people and not just the establishment consumers of art (i.e. tiny minority). It's clear that in the UK today most people feel completely disconnected from both the practice and outputs of most Arts Council funded work. There needs to be a fundamental change -- don't ask me what it is -- but let's not kid ourselves that contemporary art practice in the UK has anything to do with 95% of the population.
art is a language. from ancient cave paintings to modern graffitti. some people prefer words, some actions, some art. some people don't understand some words, some don't understand certain actions and some don't understand some art. that's ok, that's just the way it is.
Firstly, I value the term 'The arts" more than I value the term 'culture'. The arts to me is a dynamic mix of ideas, nerve, verve, energy and the ability to challenge and provoke and if that does NOT happen it is called 'culture'. I am wary of the dumbing down trend in the arts in favour of cheap ,tacky, 'idealess' events for the masses. Art in all it's forms should make you THINK.
The arts for me represent an essentially purposeless activity which entertains me, in the sense of occupying my attention while forcing me to engage in a mental dialogue with the work and its author. In doing this it has two immediate results; the first is that I am confronted with the spirit of the past, as most of the music/art/literature on record is historical. The second is to keep me in touch with the present, without with I would soon fossilise. I do not engage in the arts in order to receive moral instruction except on my terms and from people I trust. An additional function is a social one, when engaging in joint music-making for example.
Art should enhance life, as the creat cathedrals of Europe, temples at Angkor Wat etc. have done. And as J.M.W.Turner did. But at Tate Britain his bequest is scattered and marginalised, and centre stage is given to a purely political statement which a group I led today agreed was not art.
Art is a strong medium of communication because it do not need any specific medium. It goes through emotions which lie everywhere and the overall effect depends on the receiver how he lets his senses be stimulated.This spiritual enlightment of art helps one to secure the appropriate, realistic and logical path towards the goal.
Art is food for the heart, mind and soul. xxx
Our essential nature is creative. In an institution controlled world, where we are conditioned to conform it is vital we learn how to freely express ourselves as individuals. Creativity is the path to freedom and world peace formed by a global community that celebrates the diversity and richness of the world and the life it supports.
Our collective creativity will enable us to aspire to a better way.
Art, in all its many forms, is a shared language through which we tell each other about the more profound aspects of our common humanity. . We are deeply touched by those expressions of shared existence we call Art and our lives are enriched as a result. Art reinvigorates us, it serves as an act of communion, it reminds us that we can still be filled with wonder at this crazy state we call being alive.
It's only when our imaginations are liberated that we become truly free, perhaps that's why it's not high on any government agenda.
The essentials needed to maintain life are breathing, eating, sleeping, and exercise, and surprisingly art (in all its forms) or culture. Without culture we would not know who we are or what we can and cannot do. We would be lost in a world we could not understand.
Pencilpoint 1.
The esentials needed to maintain life are breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping and exercise, and surprisingly - culture (or art in all its forms) Without culture we would not know who we are or what we can or cannot do. We would be lost in aa would we could not understand.
OK. After all these beautifully crafted sentences and intellectual musings, can I just say Art is sheer enjoyment. The joy of dancing, the love of writing, the pleasure of looking. Creativity and imagination is a wonderful human gift.
I value art simply for it's existence. Art is visual proof that people are trying to make sense of their culture and community. I value art in the same way I value my wife in that she is a sounding-board for discussions and a way of helping me evolve and change opinions or positions on things that concern me.
I also value art for its "uselessness" and am revolted by people who think art should be "value for money". The way people always bring up every year how many nurses could be employed if you did not put Christmas lights up in Regent's Street. Granted nurses are very important, but try not having lights one year and notice how miserable and complaining most people would be.
Because it creates an interesting and enjoyable environment is also why I "value" art.
I lived through the Mitterand years in France and saw what a massive investment the government made in the arts (which is now under threat due to the Chirac right-wing being in place for so long). Through those years France built up it's image of a place where people lived a better, more cultured life. This is a reputation that exists to this day, despite decreased funding and the political swings that endanger the arts. Through the Albertville Olympics they changed the way ceremonies are done and ever since we have "Decoufle" look-a-likes.
What I am trying to get at is that a sociaty can gain an enormous amount of benefit through investing in the arts as the modern world is yearning for the idea that not everything has to do with profits and margins. That a society can invest in the well-being of the population and that artistic expression is as valuable a commodity as oil or wheat. That in turn creates an economy, of people going to festivals, performances, exhibitions. People will come to visit a country, and bring in tourist pounds so to speak, just to experience a society rich in culture and arts, because so many places don't have it.
For me, the greatest value of Art is that it is representative of and represented by people who question the culturally constructed environment around them. Art signifies all that i love about the world, freedom of expression, communication, imagination and complete and utter contradiction.
The main thing that interests me when engaging with any form of Art, is what I feel and what I think whilst standing in front of it, that experience is totally unique and my own. For me Art exists during the event, and in the mind of the audience when it is viewed. Like a photograph of a performance, the end product, is just an object. A document of a spectacle we were unable to witness.
The disciplines of the arts have many common qualities but each one also contains unique aspects. I believe the arts provide the most powerful form of communication that humans have. Music and the visual arts transcend the need for verbal language, verbal language only becomes necessary in the resulting expression of opinions. Arts that solely involve verbal language have limits within societies but even those limits can be overcome. The arts, in at least one form or another, have the ability to reach the soul of every human. It has the power of calming the soul and engendering a sense of self understanding and self satisfaction.
The problem is there are too many people who are unaware of their ability to express their ideas and understanding. This comes down to education. Sadly our education system is letting us down. The arts have been squeezed out in favour of feeding the need for testing and eventually the global/commercial economy. We need to allow schools the time and freedom to involve the arts in the curriculum; they also need the funding to do so. This cannot be achieved by 'projects' with visiting workshops, it has to be a significant part of the framework of education. Children of all abilities, cultures and backgrounds can be reached in one way or another through the arts, thus their education enriched. Creativity is as essential for the healthy psychological and physical development of the child as it is to the maintenance of the well being of the adult.
'Get them young' and then we would not be faced with the dilemma of how to change attitudes that are well embedded.
What do I value about the arts? The opportunity to express an idea, appreciate someone else's, dance, sing and not care if it's any good or not, because I only did it for me. Art can be a solitary business, or involve huge numbers of people. What matters most is that whatever medium, it should mean something to someone. Life without art would merely be function.
Art is a way of seeing, It is a way of sharing, a way of showuing what you can do
Art is a way of expressing what you care about, what you don't like, what you want to teach the world.
Art is a secret language that is often difficult to learn with no dictionry to help understaanding. But there is there should be excitement embarking on the journey to discover this new and the people who use it.
Yet as a disabled person art is a haven where I can ahieve and prosper and grow. And given the right suppott I can continue to pass the knowledge and the joy on to oithers
yes, art is a joy, an exhilerating ex`perience and sometimes a pain.
risk, innovation, the ability to laugh at itself and others, stumbling incoherence, stupidity in the face of failure, intelligence, discipline, persistence, indomitability. Oh for God's sake! You might as well ask what I value in my daughter.
Art is a way of seeing, It is a way of sharing, a way of showing what you can do,
Art s a way of expressing what you care about, what you don't and whatever you want to tell the world.
Art is a secret language that is often difficult to learn with no dictionary to help you understand. But there should be excitement embarking on the journey to discover this new land and the people who use it.
Yet as a disabled person art is a haven where I can achieve and prosper and grow. And given the right support I can continue to pass the knowledge and the joy on to others
Yes, art is a joy, an exhilarating experience and sometimes a pain. It has enriched my life zillions of times and my life would be much much less without it
The 'Arts' are something that can be very easily forgotten in many peoples lives because they are too busy trying to earn a living only to become disengaged from the very core of their own being.
It is the responsibility of the Arts Council in co-operation with the Government to make sure that the Arts are available to all for FREE and to actively encourage those busy people that they and their children can, as easily as watching television, attend the wonderful world of music art theatre literature etc that are available free of charge, to enrich their lives and ease the heavy burden of everyday life.
The Government should be pouring money into encouraging all kinds of artistic endeavour through the Arts Council, eliminating mediocrity through education, exploring every possible avenue to engage EVERYBODY to explore themselves through the arts, there is no more important calling.
My hope is that the 'Arts' will loose the highbrow tag and become the language of everybody eventually.
The arts - it starts with individuals working in isolation who find a form in which their ideas can be expressed, and then find an audience whose lives are enhanced, and experience broadened through their understanding. So, to me, the arts are a two way process. If there is no audience, then art becomes a solitary and less meaningful entity. Once art can be shared, it starts to take on meaning. Art can be books, painting, music, theatre or dance, it can be the sculpture you glimpse in a shut shop window, the performance of a little known play in a small theatre, in a field or at the National Theatre, it can be a book printed in millions or in a small print run.
The Arts Council in co-operation with the Government should give more support to smaller art projects who wish to advance the education of the public especially in the Dramatic Arts. This does not seem to be happening at the present time.
To quote the Sessionists
'To every time it's Art and to every Art it's freedom.'
Our Laws and morals often inhibit and restrict us, but our Art is allowed to evolve with us. I teach the best subject in the world!
Art is communication and therefore needs more than one person . If the message enhances their lives it will be listened to. If it appears to have no relevance it will not become popular . There is nothing wrong with popularity . It is not a dirty word . But to achieve this the communication should have a grain of empathy . If I were starving I would rather eat than go to the Louvre .Art is communication: Communication is the presentation of ideas . It is not saying this is the right and only way, but it is presenting an idea for consideration .whether in paint, poetry, theatre etc. , often subliminal and yet often with shock of hammer . If art does not communicate it is nothing but a toy for elitists.
What Value Art.
To have to even ask the question defines the state of our society. Art is a universal language of endeavour, of achievement. The yardstick to measure a creative individuals quality, talent and achievement. It is however much more. It is a reflection of the value a society places on the achievement of the individual. It is stronger than any tyrant, (Witness the Schostakovich example) stronger than any religious hypocrisy (Witness countless examples throughout history) Stronger than any politician or government. WHY and HOW?, because it is timeless and a reflection of those qualities of the human spirit that make us "more than we are" A society that abuses artists, or worse does not even the have time and desire to try and understand their motivation, is destined to implode and lose its ability to recognise quality and values. Defining only materialistic values, it will eventually revert to a greedy, paranoid state where value is measured not by talent or creative endeavour but by materialistic power and influence. It is no coincidence that societies produce the creative artistes' they deserve. In order for creative artists' to thrive they have to be appreciated, understood and supported. To produce work of quality in any art form requires the discipline of years of endeavour and study combined with a special sensitivity and talent. If a society is not conducive to the development and nurture of these qualities, then the creative artist will not survive. (Witness the musical examples of Uk history. Gap between Purcell and Elgar.)
It is not the artist that should be valued but what he has to say and the democratic right to say it .
Art is a major part of my life. I have seen first hand how art projects can bring groups of people together, giving them purpose, excitement and a sense of achievement. The best of such projects can offer an individual the chance of self expression and start a chain reaction within a community which reaches into the future.
For me art is akin to breathing and colour slakes a thirst. I expect I could live without them, but I wouldn’t want to.
The main value of art is thats it is purely personal, as an artist its an expression of feeling, emotion and purpose. As a viewer its all about gut reactions, the tingle in your spine if you see something that truely inspires you. Mainly its value lies with you, never let anyone tell you what you should like and appreciate, it devalues everything!
The arts are the most important aspect of life, because without this available form of expressionism or outlet, we get a lot of 'artist' that are hiding from themselves. I use 'artist' for all forms of the person within the Arts. As for the people viewing the Arts, they get just as much from it as the 'artist' who was involved in the form of the arts being done. When I read a poem I see what I need to see in it, when I see a painting, I see what I need to see in it. This expressionism or outlet is an outlet for all parties involved. If I were to see a play by shakespeare I see great performers, great writing and great, well everything, we'd hope anyway. However, performers, are more for the audience than say a painter, or artist in the usual form of the word. I think this because performers get the same outlet as the artist from what they do, but the audience are seeing a play or show that brings a certain culture to them. Obviously, it difficult to talk about all forms at once. However, I think I didn't do too badly to cover all forms. Therefore, the value of The Arts are more than anyone could put a price on!
I like art.
It's the freedom of thought.
What more could you value?
The arts should deepen our understanding of the world and touch us in a profound way. It troubles me that so much work today is pandering to certain fashions and cliques.
Much of what happens at Tate Modern is merely entertainment or frankly banal. An artist who is truly moved to create will do so without the need for subsidy.
If it is true that society gets the art it deserves I need say no more.
Art accompanies me through life. Whilst ART exists, I believe people are thinking.
When you stare at a canvass, or prepare to write, and there is nothing to express, there is a problem. Peoples association with life is the essence of Art. Art, to me, is all this. The movement from one place to another, the emotive behavior of people, the pure articulation of internal occupations. Without it all, death seems less significant. The beauty of ART is people, without people it isn't ART, it is something else. I am becoming more thankful each day I age.
Art is evidence of intelligence- of thought, responses to the world around us and a need to express ourselves. Also a link to our past-the earliest archaelogical sites in europe have some evidence of Art, and a language that can cross territorial boundaries. I can't speak Japanese but I can admire the wood cuts of Hokusai, as readily as I enjoy holding a hand made mug from a local potter.
One thing I value about the Arts today is that the wide range of artistic expression is recognised as Art. This means that jewellery, pottery and textiles and even gardening are not looked down on as they used to be by "serious artists" who could only paint. Although that does mean I have to try and value an unmade bed as art...
The Arts fulfill us beyond the basic human need for food, shelter and survival, although anthropologists might tell us that its social function aids survival. The arts are a response to a powerful urge to make human existence in some way more meaningful and more valuable. The most important aspect of this is that nobody should feel excluded from this social cultural process and what happens in a community project is as important as what happens in a high profile establishment such as an opera house or a gallery.
Through the arts we can also respond to issues that affect our lives. Politicians sometimes don't appear to be listening and the arts is often a forum where imprtant ideas can be shared, communicated or challenged. The Arts Council can help people of all backgrounds embrace the arts and feel connected to something worthwhile.
of course art is hugely important.
We can pick any bunch of words to try and explain why we think this. and as we can see from the above, any will do.
The key for me is to ask how important is nature in the broadest sense? And, how important is it to translate that which we see.
A couple of points. Firstly, we choose to live and behave the way we want to. If we don't like any facet of our life, whether it's our job, the town that we live, the woes of commuting, the shaplessness of our body - we can either complain or we choose to take the step of changing it. There is a sense of empowerment in this concept. The arts gives me a similar sense of empowerment. It educates me which enriches me, it gives me a whole new dimension to my life - its the icing on my cake. Ha! That sounds a bit weird...but what would a month be without a play, a lovely art exhibition, a moving photograph or a stunning film.
The second point I wish to make here is that we must not take it for granted how many extraordinary things that museums and art galleries offer that are free of charge. The saying 'nothing in life is free' - well it is - look around you. Take advantage of this gift of an opportunity and most of all, don't ever take the funding of the arts by the government, the national lottery and generous patrons ever for granted.
The Arts has so many forms which everyone can join, appreciate or be part of in some way which enhances life.One does not need to be an artist to appreciate and value the arts. The arts for the public should take into account the traditional,sublime and everything between, offering new and exciting challenges to the mind as well as the expected and predictably enjoyable.Those involved in the all aspects of the arts have a responsibility to open doors for people from all walks of life, embracing every culture and its possible tastes and experiences and giving the opportunity to share those with others. What is art to one means something different to another so at no point will you please everyone.Involvement in the decision making processes would allow public opinion to be heard and ensure that money is spent on things which are going to be visited. At times the opportunity to see, hear and experience something different may not be taken, but if not offered then that opportunity is lost to all. The chances for small and sometimes unknown artists to gain help with funding can be the difference between survival as an artist and having to do other things and keep art purely as a hobby. Yet for many, the arts as a leisure activity or hobby is all that they require. In fact, a very deliberate act.So there needs to be a balance which allows all of this to take place for as many as possible to gain the most they can. The arts are important in some way, small or large to everyone, in some cases without realisation until the outlet is lost.Its all in the interpretation.
What area of the arts? What kind of art?
The question is pointless. All areas of the arts have value.
most people would agree that Bach and Rembrandt produced art of such depth and variety that one can return to it and find something new. Could the same be said of Gilbert and George or Tracey Emin? Is society so lost that we no longer produce things of trancendent beauty?
The arts, all of them can mean so much to people at all stages of their lives. I worked full time in the arts from 1969 to 1994 and sort of drifted out the field though in recent years I have started to creep back. For 20 years I promoted work in and for schools throughout Cumbria as well as a wide variety of events, promotions and residencies for the family and adult audiences. Today tears came to my eyes, again, when I was listening to Today and Roger Black's Olympic quest. When young schoolgirls in Hammersmith and Chelsea were unenthusiatstic about PE. Roger thought laterally and called Pineapple Studios and broght dancers into the school. Success!
In rural Cumbria I did something on the same line with Irie! Dance Theatre. Great tours, great work, dancing dinnerladies in Millom and workouts for rugby players in Barrow.
So many people in Cumbria found the arts to be part of their lives, helped by the hard work of the arts organisations in the county despite the vagaries of the funding structure.
So, what am I trying to say?
The arts are vital to society - but they may not be recognised. Certainly in my time, and I guess the situation has not changed much, the provision is remarkably cost effective - but a political football.
I now work full time in a totally different business - but I found my experience as an arts administrator incredibly useful when I had the job of sorting out and creating financial reporting systems for a marine supplies company in Greece. In a month or so the company had an accurate picture of income and expenditure and the dreaded monthly cash-flow, something the company had not had for over 20 years. Tight, accurate budgetting and flexible thinking skills were developed in the arts - and are in great demand in the outside world.
What is art? Is there room for that discussion?
A lot of what I worked on could not be regarded as 'art' but so much encouraged people to think and work in different ways and enhanced their - and others - lives. The thought change is important.
Finally I look back at prophetic comments written a number of years ago by John Pick where he wrote about the gray aliens entering the arts administration world. When I left in 1994 the gray aliens were taking over the arts - are they still there?
There probably isn't room to discuss 'what is art?'(see above) but the question was 'what do you value about the arts?'. I happen to value figurative drawing and painting, and taught drawing in Art Schools for many years. There isn't room to expand on why I feel this is so important to the development of an artist, but I have to say I am dismayed by the level of drawing tuition now and feel as though I am part of a dying breed-but I am proud to have passed on some much needed traditional skills.
I value the time and space that the arts give us to escape from the boredom and predictability of everyday life. I value the way in which the arts constantly surprise us by revealing beauty and truths that are not always apparent. I value the potential of the arts to subvert or challenge the status-quo and to change people’s minds. In short, I value the power of the arts to transform the world we live in.
Any introduction to an idea, place, thought, image that you haven't had yourself allows possibilities to exist where they had not. The result will not always be significant or necessarily positive but the collection of experiences over time allows an individual to understand and place themselves with others in relationship to the world, imagination and in seeking reason realise that it is not always purposeful against emotion.
28.2.07 Art helps me read the gestures, symbols, colours and signs that bring to mind the beauty and brevity of life. Art may be the Ark that saves us. Animals get ready - but you don't have to be in pairs if you don't want...
Art is very important too me. There isn't much of it in my community but my teachers help me as much as they can to do all sorts of things. Art is soooo important and everyone should have the chance to do it!
The value of any of the 'arts' to individual or group can only be expressed in terms of self satisfaction. Choice and discernment as to what pleases or displeases must always be the key to acceptability. If no choice is available no discernment as to value can be made. Choice can only be made available with resources. In many many instances where there is talent and desire to publically demonstrate this, there are no available resources and talent is wasted, oppressed and destroyed. Give the artists that which is required to sustain and develop whilst discerning worthy from unworthy and our heritage as a leading nation in respect and artistic acknowledgement of artistic talent will soon disappear. Examine the descendant state of amateur choral societies capable of convening a full orchestral accompanied work, be it opera or otherwise. In the borough where I am resident there has been no such activity for the past 25years and in a neighbouring one just as long. How sad to see, or rather NOT hear.This is why we need a robust funding agency with in depth knowledge of what can be generated at a local level and sufficient funds to ensure our inherited artistic life lives on.
In a world where the deapth, breadth and range of culture is being eroded faster than it could ever be replaced we need the Arts to save us, to point us in the right direction, to warn us, to remind that we are human... if we strip it away from our communities and do not adequately support it through its troubles, we have turned our back on civilisation. Let us not look back on this time in our history with shame, lets challenge these mandarins and make them, us and the world better!
For me the, Arts offer alternative opportunities to think about the world we live in—within and beyond our immediate horizon—and to explore possibilities of thinking and being. Alternative, that is, to standard media commentary and text book wisdom.
... and to do so reactively; for I do not expect the Arts to provide answers, but to pose questions that one may not formulate quite in those ways...
There is also the pleasure that arises from witnessing something well done, with care and flair/gusto...
Art allows the brain we have developed over millennia to carry on its evolutionary struggle for independence. This is a struggle against the desire of governments, religions, multi-nationals, the mass media, the milieux into which we were born, to do all in their power to prevent us from being independent of what is accepted. Art is the expression of our refusal to take anything on faith, of our determination ceaselessly to seek intellectual freedom and, once we have it, keep it at all costs.
What we are losing is quality, particularly in theatre and television. At one time there were theatres where people could learn their craft. Most of these have gone. Television programming is being made down to a price not up to a standard and the arts vodies should say so. Tabloid TV is of little use to our cultural lives. More investment needs to be made in all aspects of theatre and the media if it is not to fade away.
Although I'm not an artist, I see myself as more than just a passive consumer of 'the arts'and would consider myself a creative person. Where I am given the opportunity, I like to create, try, engage with and explore all sorts of forms of creativity. I don't necessarily feel the need to foist my creations upon audiences or a wider public, but it's important to me to be able to give at least some free reign to my creativity. I think it's important that opportunities to create, explore and try are offered to those beyond the 11-25 age bracket as well! (I'm still under the age of 30...)
What I value about art?
- With art we can stand back from everyday life and have a good old look at it
-With art we can express parts of ourselves and explore parts of ourselves that we can't in ordinary life
-In art we can explore not just who we are - but who we want to be and as I work in theatre - we can do so 'In action'
-In art we can play and be playful, we can be playfully bad or playfully good, we can turn things inside out or stand them on their head or start a conversation, or make a point - but through making our art we learn more about ourselves.
- With art we can explore others and create opportunities for others to explore us and themselves
- Art can open up new worlds for us - I enter a piece of art and my world is transformed. But am I also transformed in this interaction?
- Art that has made an impression on me has changed me or sewn the seeds of change
-Not all art is 'good' and that is what I value too - the risk, the experimentation, seeing people/artists struggling with ideas, struggling with the simple, the complex, the ineffable
-In a world where there is an increasing imperative to 'perform' - performing arts allows us to 'perform' on our own terms, and indeed to 'parody', question and challenge the very notion of 'performance'.
Like several of the other contributors for me the art I value is is about thought and the development of a critical mind, but it is also more than that. I believe that an important part of art is 'play', the overwhelming enjoyment of a seemingly trivial activity; the sudden inexplicable emotional reaction to form, sound or colour. Without art life seems bleak, tied to a relentless biological wheel.Art can be laughter and tears; a surge of joy or pain.
Art is not commerce or dialectic
Breathing
I value any artistic experience which makes me feel alive.
Just like any other experience we value.
Arts are different in that they create that feeling from nothing. You don't need a pack of cards, scissors, paper, stone, goal-posts, a second home, car, mortgage - where your life is on the line.
This winter I had the privilege of writing poetry about the Ashes Tour in Australia www.ashespoetry.net
I was funded by Arts Council England, (more than matched by in-kind contributions from BBC and other agencies, plus three thousand hard cash from my own pocket - I know how to get in line to dispatch any rough stuff)
Part of the Grant for Arts application was a poem about the Arts Debate
Sixty Not Out - Arts Council England 1946-2006
The hardest part is the start,
knowing how to proceed, justify
and develop proven justifications
into significant progress.
Matters that count
to be enjoyed and remembered
more for what they give
than the acts themselves.
This is the art that makes art.
Sixty not out is not too bad for players of class.
Taking guard straight after VE Day
there have been numerous difficulties,
periods of uncertainty, sticky wickets,
unfavourable conditions, the odd play
and miss, opportunity, mix-ups in the middle
and occasionally benefit of the doubt.
It takes some skill and effort to reach sixty not out.
Players of class look towards a century,
a big ton or more. Once set it should follow
however hard the bowlers of perfection bellow
to turn the umpires of opinion against themselves.
The art that makes art must not stand apart
from artists nor detractors, but face their deliveries
and make more of them in setting the score.
In other words, take a deep breath and try it for yourself before coming to any opinion.
If you don't, you can't really say you're living, can you?
I have been employed by the arts for most of my adult life, so I value the the arts as my employer. This has been across both the private and public sector.
I value the arts as a participant, particularly as an art tourist travelling to galleries and very public places as diverse as the Northumbrian Coast to see Bethan Hews Basistra? Singers and the rainbow at the end of the performance and revisiting the Battle of Orgreave in Yorkshire to public art in Munster in Germany and Video projections in Durham Cathedral. I have valued taking my children to all of these events. Without arts subsidy of all kinds from ACE, local authorities and others into individual artists at different stages in their careers these amazing public events would not have happened.
I am a keen follower of the arts, both art and music, and try to take in a live performance or exhibition at least twice a month. It is essential that these are readily available for all and sundry and more schools should find the time to take children from an early age.
Government funding should be increased and should NOT go sideways toward paying for the Olympics.
Obviously all arts need to be supported to help develop human beings
intellectual aspirations, but I
feel that popular culture has become
increasingly relevent in opening up
the imaginations of a very large
number of people, which is why some
distance between commercial considerations is necessary in order
to produce a less homogenous artistic landscape. I feel it is also relevent to support artistic endeavours that are not merely carthartic for the artist concerned
but attempt to reach a wider audience by also trying to entertain
people. After all some of the greatest novels and music has managed to combine these two areas.
Flicks in the Sticks in Shropshire is a fantastic way of getting films out to people in rural areas. We showed The Queen in our village hall had 82 people who would otherwise have had to travel 15 miles to see it. And it provided great revenue for our village hall.
Art is art
Art is sky
Art is black
Art is white
Art talking thoughts
Art rocking thoughts
Art is colourful butterfly
Art is colourful chatterfly
Art is colours, colours are people, People are mindful artists, Artists are divine.
Divine is truth. Truth is forever.
Dipak Joshi
Art is a coming to terms and an act of resistance. It is a tipping of the scales of reality towards some transcendent equilibrium. Against all odds, it is an act of hope. The artist peers into the void and creates. The artist says: I shall confront reality and make something beautiful. I like art that offers me this, that has an almost moral sense of responsibility to engage and seek to understand. I like art, in all its myriad forms, that makes me want to cry because it affirms that there is a greatness about being alive.
Art is all about living, not existing. Although slobbing in front of the TV or playing computer games has its place, anything which helps us go beyond ourselves has got to be better.
One of the biggest killers is not keeping our brains active. Art is interactive whether we are looking at it, watching it, making it, performing it. It gets our brains going, it gives us something to talk about, it gets us out of the house.
Art is not an optional leisure activity.
It is as important as excercise and education.
And even if you don't enjoy art in the conventional sense, it can still touch your life through how we live and how we think.
"Indolence, Pessimism, Decadence!"
(Now my rallying cry. Thanks Catherine)
'the arts' is a problematic phrase. First it seeks to conflate 13 or so different media - dance, theatre, painting, song, poetry, etc. Second, in so far as public funding, civic installation and academic endorsement is concerned, 'the arts' seeks to discriminate between what is included and what is excluded. What is excluded (I confine myself here to only one of the arts, namely Art, formerly figurative painting and sculpture)is charachteristically superior to what is included. (For example, compare Escher with Mondrian, or Klarwein with Emin.) Therefore, there is a quality control failure and ideological bias scandal. Third, each of 'the arts'conflates old and new, antique Art and antic Art. The drawback here is that any justification for funding the curating of antique Art leads to the funding of antic Art.
Public funding of Art in the UK is an arms-length arrangement with government. The funder (public purse)adopts a hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing relation to the product of its funding. It can be shown (the select committee concluded) that public funding of contemporary Art has achieved a mechanism for fueling a treasure market at the expense of, in direct opposition to, supporting art - image or ornament for human eyes.
paul miskin whoever you are i second that!
art..
when i step into a gallery or speak to a 'creative' i get this huge overwhelming sense of wel being, this however sounds completely meladramatic!
i consider art to be the reasoning for discussions, its so broad its far too great to condense, to define, i just know i breath for it.
whatever it is.
i hold art so very close and so
very high.
I have been asked to respond to this consultation as Artistic Director of Border Crossings (www.bordercrossings.org.uk), which is an intercultural arts organisation, and my answers will of course be coloured by that perspective. But I feel that what we offer, as a company working in intercultural theatre, is in many ways representative and characteristic of art more generally, and is able to highlight the incredible value of art and culture in any society.
I happen to be writing this in Athens, because I am working with the National Opera of Greece at the moment. This is an appropriate place in which to try to answer these questions, especially for a theatre practitioner like myself, because it was here that western theatre was invented. I do not think it is any coincidence that it was also here that western democracy was invented. Democracy, contrary to the implication of much US-UK foreign policy, is not something which can be imposed upon a society, or latched onto the coat-tails of capital. It is something which arises out of a culture, an atmosphere. As artists and cultural workers, our role is to create such an atmosphere. The arts make moods amongst their audiences. They empower those audiences through the atmospheres they generate. They make certain things thinkable, and other things unthinkable.
At the present moment, much of what, throughout the history of western civilization, we have regarded as unthinkable within democratic structures and traditions, is becoming thinkable. I mean the erosion of civil liberties, the institutionalisation of racism, the criminalisation of the victims of human trafficking, the labelling of people fleeing persecution as illegal migrants, the deliberate impoverishment of people in other countries by multinational corporations: I could go on. These things happen because we have become capable of thinking the unthinkable. They can only be stopped by a concerted campaign in the hearts and minds of the public.
In Periclean Athens, theatre was a civic duty, both for the performers and the audience. The entire citizenry went to hear and see a complex performance in which there were many voices; refined and made special through poetry, song, dance and image. The voices they heard were often those of the excluded: so many Greek plays have the names of women as a title, and the Chorus is so often a group of older people, or young people, or foreigners. Because in the arts, in the cultural space, people can meet as equals. There is no equality in the market-place or on the battlefield. We have no political, social or economic equality. But in the empty space of the theatre; there we stand as our naked selves. And that is where we must begin. In 5th century Athens, going to the theatre was a compulsory preparation for the legislative process and for jury service. If we are searching for ways out of our current moral bankruptcy (and I believe many of us are) then we could do a lot worse than look to this Greek cultural model.
So, if we desire a better society, a more democratic society, a more secure society, a more just society, we must invest in art and culture. Because when people explore what it is to be human, it enables them to become more humane.
It kind of goes without saying that art can play many roles for many people, but for me it is most valuable as a means of understanding the culture that I live within, making meaning in the present and giving access to "the spirit of the past" as someone wrote above. We currently live in a society that has allowed commerce and naked capitalism to colonise its every corner. It is all the more important, therefore, to value and support the arts for the sake of giving us an alternative system of interpreting the world that is perhaps sometimes critical, anti-rational, complex, non-verbal and generally humanist.
The arts allow us to look at life from a different angle; they give us space to question; they offer unique opportunities to be involved and take us away from the mundane. Quite simply, they change lives.
If I had to sit and ponder my existence with an ageing mother, a disabled son and a rageing emotional teenage son without the help of the worlds brought to me by books, the colour brought to me by film, painting and form brought by sculpture, plus the ideas given to me by challenging art, what would be the point in my mundane existence of drudgery? How would I learn to empathise with other people who may be in worse situations than I, if they didn't express something about their own lives that they could communicate to me?
The ability to express reflections on our own existence is fundamental to what distinguishes the human species. The more developed it is (through art), the more developed we are.
Art is valuable for looking from a different angle; challenging what a "machine-efficiency" view of life would demand; accessing all the non-obvious dimensions; and simply being enriching.
I'm 15 and I value art alot. Without art I wouldn't be creative. Art is amzing and helps me to express my feelings. x
art not only helps people express feelings, but also in identifying and expressing identity. It gives opportuntiies to develop skills, set personal challenges and to support enjoyment. It is a useful means of managing stress of life in advanced capitalist societies and in brdinging cultural divides and social schisms. It values difference and diversity and encourages the expressions of these qualities. Uniquely, perhaps, it is enjoyed actively (by performes, participants) and passively( by audiences, viewers) and leads to indvidual, group and collective wellbeing.
What my group and I value about the arts is that we are given a chance to work with established artist and benefit from their experences also about how art is presented and in what form so many different ways someone like me just didn't appreciate just what can be classed as art. Working in partnerships getting away from everyday deprevation making someone happy seeing our younger generation learning from older people; older people learning skills from our young artists, having fun doing it taking ownership of your own life whilst giving something to others. Helps people to relax learn new skills find the artist with in one's self. Art is a very valueble communications skill. A very valueble tool.
arts are truths reflections of what one lives and what one sees, of what one is!!!
I have strong beliefs that the arts play a very important role in out lives, even though some of us don't realise it. I personally enjoy seeing small productions by people who love what they do, listening to new music by local bands, viewing the pictures that a friend has taken, listening to a storey that someone dear to me can relate, or enjoying painting that a loved one has created.. all this after all, is art, but on a more personal level. On a wider scope, I enjoy learning from art. It can teach you to view things from a different angle, or open your eyes to the diversity within the local community. Art should be valued & cherished & taught to children at an early age in school and at home. We should support them in anyway we can. Thank you to all you artists out there, however big or small your contributions are.
Art is important on a number of levels, not being an artist in any way I appreciate others who have the ability to produce works of art whether they are pictures, sculptures or song etc. A song can remind me of a place or a person, a picture can transport me back to a place or a film can evoke thought. I have taught in a prison and the art classes were a fundamental path to self discovery for some of the population. To create something of beauty and care for it was a way of making them review choices in their own life.
More can be done for modern composers - with regarding to funding and commissions etc.
My son had 2 orchestral works broadcast on Radaio 3 each lasting about 20 minutes. 2 years on the performing fee for the two was £2.66 half of this had to go to his publishers.
We should be thinking more about Government on the arts and less on spending on the Olympic games - the soul is equally if noy more important than the physical part of our being.
Thanks for the wallet. I just blogged about it. see http://uk.blog.360.yahoo.com/kathleenzbell "Delights of Free Art" as follows:
Leaving the station this morning, I was given a red wallet – the kind I use for my season ticket. “Thanks,” I said, “I can do with one of those.”
Quite often, people stand outside the station giving things away: a can of coke, a cloth to clean shoes, a bag of crisps …always as part of some marketing ploy but the gift is often welcome. As my season ticket wallet is falling apart, I was particularly glad of this.
One of the donors – a young woman – must have marked my delight as she offered me another wallet. “It’s by Tracey Emin,” she said.
And so it was – there’s a drawing of a cat (I admire Emin’s drawings), a little inscription saying “TRACEY EMIN STUDIO” and the handwritten words “We’ve got fur and lots of ears. Love Tracey Emin. 2007”
Not an original, of course but a specially-made plastic wallet. I have four of them now, celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the Arts Council of England. The others are by Bernadine Evaristo, Adam Suherland and Antje Schiffers. Each is a miniature delight.
I often visit galleries for the free art, but those are temples of culture. And I admire works of public art, from Nelson’s Column to Charles Jagger's bleak monuments to military annihilation. But daily delights are few. I used to like the bright mosaics by Paolozzi at Tottenham Court Road underground but there’s too little like that – and too many dingy Van Gogh reproductions in hospital waiting rooms.
But today I was one of many people given a n artistic delight for myself. “Sell it on eBay,” one man said. But I won’t. I shall use Tracey Emin’s wallet – and the others – and every time I see them I shall enjoy the gift. Far more cheery than anything in Gordon Brown’s budget is the daily use of art – a delight, a cause for contemplation and a reminder of a world beyond the everyday.
Thank you Tracey, Bernadine, Adam and Antje. Thank you Arts Council.
Wasting money on rubbish like free wallets isn't what the Art Council should be about. I read in the paper about the Art Council complaining about having it's funding cut, but if you spend tax payers money on things like this, you must have too much!
Access and aethetics foremost, Beatifiking thereby, committment, discernment, ecology, economy, energy, feedback, fortune, goodness, highness, intuition, innovation, joy, kinetics,love, mastery, novelty, overtime, politics, religion, science, taxonomy, treatment, unity, verity, waywardness, X, yes, Z too...
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" Wilde.
In the tawdry, uncultured and money orientated nation that we have become "the stars" are the works of art, be they musical, literary visual or any other form of creative expression that takes your fancy and you choose to call art.
art is good but people think when kids r doin art it is grafiti
Art is what transforms the mundane into beauty. Without art the city would be a very drab place.
Art is a cultural expression of who we are in the times that we are living. It should be above being politically devisive.
Great Art should transcend the time in which is produced and speak to us through the centuries - crossing the boundaries of nationhood and class.
The Arts enrich us as human being. They express our humanity; they provoke thoughts about important elements of life, and draw our attention to other peoples' situations. They bring us together as a community
What i value about the arts is its ability to transport you into another world; particularly when that world is different from yours or what you perceive. We are all navigating the same or similar waters but in an individual or unique way that has meaning for us. With the arts in general, one can discern the humanity and human drama within. Film, in particular, engages one optimally. Altogether all the arts illuminate our creativity and imagination. I believe the arts have magical and enduring values that are intrinsic to humanity as a whole.
Take the reverse perspective: life without art. Everything for a reason, practical, logical, systematic, defined, predefined, predicted, repetative, relentless. All the dull bits of our world from which we use art to escape. Flat square buildings. Concrete gardens. Easy maintenance, high efficiency. It would be so completely wrong, we need to ensure the arts endure so that we do too.
Art to me is an appreciation of creativity. The human body is an artistic creation in itself. I write free verse poetry and for me it is an expression of a feeling, or moment, a view or a person.
I enjoy all forms of art, music, painting,poetry, sculpture, tapestry, even the art in nature. Sometimes, it can be an individual personal experience, sometimes, it can be a national or international event. I once attended an exhibition at the Tate Modern and watched a short film, called Stegosaraus, which showed a naked man dancing in front of a camera, making his own live art montage, in the scene there was a small soft toy stegosaraus. After the initial amusement and awareness of his naked dancing, I began to observe the reactions of the other members of the public to this film. They soon became my focus; what they didnt realise was, for me they were starring in their own 'living' art moment. Art, expression whatever you want to call it is around us all the time and cannot be avoided. I suppose it is another thing that makes us human, that we aware of our creativity, whereas other members of the animal kingdom are not.
the arts areimportant to me bwecauswe they represent what a country and its people can do they also represent culture it that art is part of our heritage
The human ability to create art distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom. The arts have the ability to:-
change the way individual people act, feel and think.
document and reflect the world and the people living in it.
Bring about political, environmental and social change
Enhance our built environment
Develop our social interactions
Touch, educate and edify people of all ages, abilities, cultures and persuasions
I value the arts for arts sake, for enjoyment and culture, and for pushing artform boundaries, redefining what art is, and bringing happiness and escapism to peoples lives, enabling people to fulfil their potential and providing alternatives to the mainstream. I value the role the arts play in meeting social objectives, but I don't believe this is the primary role of the arts.
art-ART-arT-Art-aRt-ArT
TOUCH
SMELL
SEE
HEAR
EXPERIANCE
EVERYTHING CAN BE!
I enjoyed reading everyones views they made me think .M>F 13th Feb I found interesting
What do you value about the arts
When people engage in making art they are not (for example) fighting, killing, exploiting or wasting time. I value this.
When people make art they think deeply about the choices available to them and the resources they have to deal with them.
When people make art they say 'I am alive in the world.
When people engage with art as audience they accept that there are many ways of being in the world, that the world may take many forms, that some forms take on meanings for us (beauty, strength, wit, and all their variations and opposites).
There are many ways of communicating ie relating to each other and ourselves across time and space but the arts provide so many of them.
What principles should guide public funding of the arts today?
Public funding for arts should concentrate on community arts. That is, creative artistic projects that involve communities of people in the making of it, and which thereby provides processes and structures by which we get to know each other better. This is integration. The arts can be a space where traditional identities can be honored while simultaneously fusing to create the future: these are the places we collectively come from, and these are the futures we can see for ourselves.
Public funding of individual artists, no matter how talented, should have a lower priority where there is no element of engagement and involvement with wider communities.
What are the responsibilities of a publicly-funded organization?
To channel as much of its financial resource into it's aims rather than the infrastructure of the organization - ie get the money to the art (ists)
When should an artist receive public money?
When they explore and produce art that brings people together as equals under the mystery of things. Art that unites us a humans sharing a planet rather than divided tribes. Art that celebrates what we have in common over our differences.
Should members of the public be involved in arts funding decisions?
Yes if they are supported with clear information about the arts and artists. No power of veto! Maybe involved as panel members alongside arts officers, artists, children, teachers etc. Perhaps a courtroom style of consultation, with members of the public as jury, (but without the adversarial quality!) Perhaps involved at macro level ie not on individual grants to artists but on broad themes of programme.
I value the arts for asking why?
The arts allow us to look at and judge ourselves without risk of condemnation.
Hey Im a student at parliament hill school na dim in yr10. I think that their needs to be more things for kids in my age group revolving around arts. Espcially in local areas. There's nothing to do for teenagers anymore that are exciting, so that's why alot of the kids my age are hanging around on the streets, taking drugs, partying heavily. What is it coming to? I think if there were art projects going around for people in my age group around local areas, then it might help them to get off the streets and do something constructive in their spear time instead of resulting to drugs and acohol. Parent's need to feel there kids are safe now, but their not. Arts need to be introduced to local areas. Give us something to do. Youths don't want to hang around on the streets they need something to do. It really annoys me that people wonder why youth's are on the streets. Well there's nothing constructive to do.
How much does the Arts Council's agenda, possibly set out by a predominantly Political requirement, effect art?
Can art still be "the liberation from constraint" (Bretton)?
Arts to me is the immediate form of humanity and is the potrait of the thinking of an individual as he sees the world. The best art would be that of a new born baby who would not be corrupted by the society no matter where he or she lives.
Art is the common ground due to which people can develop their frienship. You can see what a person might be like if you listen to his or her comments on a specific form of art.
Art to me is something that someone has thought about and taken alot of time doing so to both develop and create their piece.
To be honest i hate this brainless modern art, for example i hated Tracey Emin's messy room, if thats art, my room will sell for millions, and then i heard about her makeing a bed cover range? thats hilarious shes produced white bed sheets that will be overpriced because they are art? its plain terrible.
But to answer the question, art to me is something that inspires, makes me go away and remember it because of its brilliance, not because it was appalling.
I find it difficult to value just one area of the arts. All forms of art have something about them, a sort of magnetic energy that makes everone talk. Art lover or not everyone is talkin when an artist creates a piece of work that is strange. The Angel of the North was seen as an awful waste of money and yet it's now a symbolic representation of the North-east; not only our industrial heritage but our cultural future. The North-East of England is rapidly becoming more cultured and any art that can be presented is of value because it makes people talk. When Spank the monkey opened at Baltic and around Newcastle I was on the Metro and when we passed through Jesmond; where part of this street art is exhibited an elderly couple noticed it and were appauled and assumed it was done by youths. By the time I finished explaining to them it was art - a form of art available in the public domain - they thought differently, they didn't like it but they did think about it. If an artist creates art and people like me don't talk about it then its pointless. Tracey Emin has even said "Whats the point in being an arist without an audience". All art has value, its a matter of how we as individals and groups percieve it.
I am a painter of works that are proudly non-contemporary. When I think of the term "the arts" that immediately translates to the "art establishment", an establishment that perpetuates a culture of disposable art - those dreadful "installations", an establishment that offers no value to me whatsoever! Thanks to the establishment, great paintings; paintings that DO endure, can now only be seen in museums, not galleries.
Art is everywhere, from a child's drawing to a thought in your head created by a view or a flower. Art should not be pretentious - everday life contains art in all its forms and we need to celebrate all the little things as well as the big expressions of emotion and thought. My most precious piece of art is from my child.
the arts offer an alternative view on life. serious subjects, humour, high art, fine art...whatever. A break from the pressures, dishonesty and vicious self interest that pervade western culture.
When the duplicitous protestions of charlatans begin to overwhelm, take a step back and contemplate on art - to return refreshed to the rat race.
The arts, as many have said, is not one single entity, no more than "culture, media and sport" is a single proposition. It is impossible to say where 'the arts' begins and ends. Can the conversations that spill out onto the street after a theatre play be called 'the arts', or the shadows that one notices on the street walking home after an exhibiton? The blurring and connection of artistic works to life is something that I value but this is something that can also be said of a washing powder advert on the television. This too takes something of 'the arts' and connects it very directly to life. We should therefore distinguish between what is the nature, or potential, of 'the arts' and what we value most in 'the arts'.
For me, I value independence. I value this as I grow more and more weary of artistic expression that approaches the condition of propaganda. Under the name of 'democratical responsibility' I perceive 'the arts' principal strength, its independence, being drained and a set of institutionally defined values that support policy objectives publicised in its place. Worse still, it is all too often the failure of actual policies to be realised that is being covered up by public arts programs that divert attention away from political failings. Urban regeneration, forexample, is better served by affordable homes that an community arts centre.
What I value in 'the arts' is a space outside of institutional agendas, a space where I can perceive the world as somebody else does, a space where my imagination is not insulted as it is in the broadcast media by rampant commercialism that adopts a lowest common denominator aesthetic and peddles a deeply suspect political and ethical set of values.
BBC Radio 4 yesterday evening transmitted (The Archive Hour) a review of the career and beliefs of Denis Healey - the greatest Labour Prime Minister we never had. Towards the end, in an interview clip with Healey he said something like (I didn't get the exact wording down in writing) "my cultural hinterland is what has made the politics tolerable" and he went on to describe serious music, literature and art as the key media he personally valued and found to be indispensable to a fulfilled life. Sounded authentic to me from an abnormnally honest and intelligent (though not notably modest!) politician. How very different from the shallow opportunistic Blair and his present ultra-loyal Secretary of State for Culture...
I know everyone is entitled to their opinion here but I would just like to say in response to ninian owen's comment, that paintings can be viewed in galleries, to my knowlegde Tate Britian and Modern are both galleries not museums. Where I admit I am a fan of contempoary art I respect that it would not exist today without the history of fabulous and exceptional paintings of the past. It would be interesting and of great value if paintings came back into the artworld more but times change and the installation is now popular. Where contempoary art may seem like absoulte rubbish I must raise the fact that contempoary art has a mission to question our own thoughts and ideas. If art of any kind can not make the audience think of feel then of what value is it? If I find myself looking at a painting or a contemporary installation and see nothing in it; no hidden symbology, no direct statement about current affairs or anything else of such standing then what do I feel? I can't find value in art unless it questions. Ninian owen does raise a point but in response to your comment I just have to point out that all art has value in some manner its how we look at it that makes it of value. As you say you are an artist I would have thought that you may find away to appricate all mediums within art even if you don't like them. I try and find something meaningful in all art - something the artist wants the viewer to see. A kind of magic that is within all art.
People who claim that art has no value live a blinkered life - they do not realise how art infiltrates and influences every moment of the life.
Without art the world would be grey and dull. I value the individuality and wide range of the arts in the UK at the moment.
I have worked in the arts for over forty years - but the arts is valuable to me not just job or a source of income. The arts are life enhancing and life enriching and are for EVERYONE TO ENJOY. The arts are part of our heritage and our future and must be accessible. Arts funding is vital and must be protected. Encourage sponsorship and lottery funding for the arts by all means but the core funding must be sufficinet for an organisation to fulfill its purpose effectively and must come from the public purse.
Ask yourself whether an un-made bed or a line of bricks will endure in the mind not merely as cliches! It just seems odd to me that galleries are dominated by works outside the context of some familiar formal structure when it is patently true that the very best is not usually like that. Unthinkable me thinks in music and literature! In the words of Eric Morcombe "all the right notes, just played in the wrong order"
I value the inspiration of the arts amongst other things. There is nothing better to open your mind than going to a gallery such as The Baltic or seeing a massive piece of public art being built in your local town (Chester-le-Street), even in its early stages, under wraps and clad with builders - it inspires me.
For me art is about the magic that is created within a theatrical setting. There has always been something magical about live art being created in front of your eyes.
I believe that theatre can be an inspirational education to all. It is true that for my self, when being involved in the creative process a huge buzz consumes me. It is therefore very important, when putting all the aspects of theatre into the huge melting pot, that we introduce it to children as soon as possible.
The arts has been a massive aspect of my life. it has shaped the way I think about things and theatre certainly has the power and source to pass this vibrant message on. Theatre is for the masses rather the the few.
finally and most importantly the arts is a great development that entertains, educates and lets all of us have fun. It is a visual benifit to our community that lets us come together and sould be treated as so by the ruling and powerful sources.
The Arts are important for many reasons - all of which are valid for different people at different times and from different cultures. Sometimes they capture the essence of humanity; sometimes they dehumanise. An informed artistic appreciation allows us to distinguish between the two.
Art stimulates reflection on our individual lives and those of others, on our values and ethical standards, on our society and it relationship to the global village. Art cap[tures the transient and the eternal; and helps us to distinguish between the two. Art sensitises us to the values and percepytions of others. Arts capture the essence of our civilisation - and of those aspects of our lives that are uncivilised.
In all these areas they are not the only medium at work. The function alongside academic learning, formal education, religion and the media.
The arts have been a part of my life since I was born, my mum and all of her closest friends were always involved with the arts so it's something I've been brought up with. Whether it be music, art, theatre or books it's important to me.
I always suffered from bullying when I was younger and the arts helped me escape it. Whether I was at a festival, in a gallery or museum, on the stage or lost in a book it helped me escape the life which hurt me but also gave me other friends. The arts is something which I think effects everyone's life in one was or another it's just to what extent really. It's an important part of life and culture that would otherwise be lost and the funding for that is even more important because without it we wouldn't be able to carry the culture on.
nothing?
Whatever the medium, an artist's work can tell us about our traditions or tell us about our present or imagine something about our future. It becomes really interesting when the artwork is intended to show us one of these and ends up telling us about the others.
Art is visual communication.
Speaking is an art. It is a skill.
As visual communication, in a world of no art (to myself) this would show that we have lost the people who have the true powers to observe.
Losing art is like losing the English language.
The value of art is phenomenal. It is speaking in silence.
Why do so many people in this debate elegise about what they think Art is! Isn't that missing the point somewhat! The debate is about the value of "the arts" to presumably help direct the arts council in funding future arts projects using our money.
So, here's one for the visual arts; lets not use our money to build a new storey on top of the existing ivory tower - we've just had one of those - it's called the Baltic! Oh, or was that meant to make the arts accessible to everyone? Couldn't we all buy a Machano set, and build a model of the Tyne Bridge?
I might be wrong but it looks like a lot of comments have been duplicated across the different discussion areas - making it look as though there are a lot more responses than there actually are. Has anyone else noticed this?
In general we don't remove posts. We have noticed that a handful of participants have reposted a comment in a second forum. When they appear to be doing this to make the same points relevant to a different question, we think that is fine. In a few cases the same copy has been used multiple times and we have removed the extra versions.
Art opens and broadens peoples minds, Art inspires, Art influences, Art allows people to express what thier feeling inside, Art brings people together to collaborate and create imaginative, vibrant, breathtaking masterpieces,
Art stimulates the mind.
Art opens and broadens peoples minds, Art inspires, Art influences, Art allows people to express what thier feeling inside, Art brings people together giving freedom to collaborate and create imaginative, vibrant, breathtaking works of art, Art stimulates our minds.
Imagine if you can a world without the arts...
They do more than merely hold the mirror up to nature: they celebrate, cheer, console, lampoon, lament, awaken and so on. The list of how they can touch every one of us is endless. Reason enough for their survival.
Art is the voice of creativity.
Art should be there to enrich our intellects and inspire us with new theories or an alternative view on the state of the world. It should exercise our minds in ways that we may find hard to verbalise, so fresh and unexpected is the perspective that thrills us. However much of a form of escapism it can be, art should never stray from its educational purpose, even if the only thing it teaches is the value of lateral thinking.
I love seeing beauty in art but I will love it more if it has something to say beyond its superficial aesthetic qualities. Equally, I will appreciate the skilful way with which art may be constructed if it has a valid contribution to make to its message.
That is not to say I reject traditional artistic skills, or even historical works of art (and there are many that I admire). Rather, I am saying that I will advocate any works of art, be they historical, traditional, post-modern or avant-garde, that I feel 'speak' to me with their substance and application.
Because when the artits plays with animal health I think there is no art. Because first comes life and second the arts.
How do I know what it is to be another human being?
How do I know what another human being feels?
How do I locate my own feelings and perceptions with those of others?
What is it like to be you?
Art- whatever the form- is what we have to express the above, and define our humanity.
Art is a teacher, art is a thinking and a teaching. Art is a creation of nature. Arts is vital in the ulticultural society of Britain!
Its important that we fund the community arts and those organisation which stems out of community and reflect the needs of the community. If certain activities brings all members of the community and enhances the social cohesion and integration agendas then Arts Council has a moral obligation to fund those activities and the infrastructure cost of those organisations. Without some injection of funding in infrastructure cost, an organisation cannot continue to survive and deliver high quality well organised events. Currently the arts organisation in the BME community is suffering the most as they are insufficiently funded in all fronts. One example I wish to give when an Asian organisation promotes arts activities through Diwali, Arts Council refuses to fund it more than once, thinking that they are promoting 'faith'. It is not the case at all! Arts Council does not have the foresight to see that various aspects of Diwali celebration which are arts related, can be used to spread the knowledge of Asian culture among the wider community through educational programme and through events that are open, provide equal access and creates an opportunity for ALL in the community to enjoy and value this cultural exchange. Arts Council needs to see this kind of activities as 'an art form' rather than 'promotion of faith'. Arts Council needs to broaden its thinking and embrace 'Cultural Diversity' as it stand, in its entirity. I am not saying that Arts Council should fund Diwali event all the time but Arts Council should look at the programme content of an organisation and assess whether or not majority of the programme (95%) can be considered as arts and involves the community or not. Involve a member from the Asian community with arts experience to judge the application.
I agree with Helen Lloyd said at 12:37 PM, 02 Ap