Let’s have a new conversation, shall we? Let’s talk about the power of art to move and change and improve the quality of our lives and the lives of others all around the world. If we really want to engage in a conversation around something that can more fully save lives, offer shelter, open windows, eradicate poverty of the mind, body, and spirit and free us to savor the liberties Americans espouse … then let’s talk art.
Over the week-end, I had the privilege of attending two artistic events. The first was the Louisa County Public Schools Arts Festival. No longer held at the High School which was lost to the 2011 Earthquake, this event took place in the Middle School which served as a fine exhibit hall. And among the hundreds of pieces of art displayed, I encountered throngs of people. There were grandparents and babes in arms. There were children pulling parents by the hands to show where their own art was displayed. There were teachers and nurses and computer wizards and plumbers and farmers… all walking around witnessing beauty and skill and patience and imagination and possibilities. Oh, and by the way, you could create art of your own while you were there. You could lose yourself as you made a basket or wound paper into shapes or created a colorful abstract to hang in your window. People showed up for the love of art and for the love of children, and my friends, art and children should always walk hand in hand.
In the evening, I attended the Ashland Musical Variety Show. It was a fundraiser for the Hanover Arts and Activity Center which is in need of a new roof. Want to know what I found there? I, again, found folks of all ages and all walks of life both in the audience and on stage. There was singing and dancing and entertainment filled with so much fun that I would imagine even Eeyore, Oscar the Grouch, the Grinch, and Cruella Deville finding their happy places. Grown men in flowered swim caps reenacting the best of synchronized swimmers, women reminding themselves and all of us of the work and fun that only women can fully appreciate as they belted out “I’m a Woman,” a barbershop quartet (made up of about 20) singing harmonies that surely touched those honored at Heaven’s gates… songs out of the 60s made fresh with new boots and new voices as we all tapped our toes to “These Boots are Made for Walking”. And sweet young faces of children singing great Americana songs as they waved their red, white, and blue flags.
And so… how might events like these make a difference in our world? What true merit is there to songs that hang in the air and canvas covered in paint that could readily be shoved to the back of a closet? What does it matter that events like this take place all over the world in fancy theaters and small mud huts? It’s that people decide to reveal themselves in their purest. It’s that something in me wants to connect… to my own truth and to the truth that lives in you. It’s that we were created out of the imagination of a Divine Source to be more than facts and figures, more than our smallest thoughts, more than the horror we are also capable of.
Art is alive and it gives us life. It takes us back to something that we often cannot name or articulate. It sends us into action so that we can bear what we cannot bear. We throw the paint, we bang the drum, we rise to our toes, we hum, we sculpt, we pour out words that simply must breathe air, and we find ourselves. And in doing this, we feel capable. We feel safe. We grow wiser and deeper and more compassionate. We figure out how to sustain ourselves when nothing else sustains. And last but not least, we ignite joy.
Still, some will ask how art actually evokes the virtues most needed in the world. How, literally, does art transform war to peace, illness to health, or poverty to well-being? How can we prove the merits of something so esoteric? We prove it by imagining life without it. We prove it by honoring and acknowledging the artistic moments that take our breath away, that stir us to tears, that cause our bellies to hurt from the laughter that has been evoked by the sheer willingness of art to delight. We prove the merits of art by embracing the fact that we are a people of creative minds and hearts and this world and the lives we live in it are so much more than what can be proven. What is true is that when we shut out the most alive parts of ourselves, when we fail to touch or be touched, when life is narrowed to only this way or that… our humanity is lost to that which keeps us from truly knowing one another.
There are lots of debates taking place in our world. The right to bear art… simply shouldn’t be one of them.
Art, in its finest efforts, is a bridge of understanding that can reveal the answers this tired, worn world seeks.
May it be so. May it be so.
Over the week-end, I had the privilege of attending two artistic events. The first was the Louisa County Public Schools Arts Festival. No longer held at the High School which was lost to the 2011 Earthquake, this event took place in the Middle School which served as a fine exhibit hall. And among the hundreds of pieces of art displayed, I encountered throngs of people. There were grandparents and babes in arms. There were children pulling parents by the hands to show where their own art was displayed. There were teachers and nurses and computer wizards and plumbers and farmers… all walking around witnessing beauty and skill and patience and imagination and possibilities. Oh, and by the way, you could create art of your own while you were there. You could lose yourself as you made a basket or wound paper into shapes or created a colorful abstract to hang in your window. People showed up for the love of art and for the love of children, and my friends, art and children should always walk hand in hand.
In the evening, I attended the Ashland Musical Variety Show. It was a fundraiser for the Hanover Arts and Activity Center which is in need of a new roof. Want to know what I found there? I, again, found folks of all ages and all walks of life both in the audience and on stage. There was singing and dancing and entertainment filled with so much fun that I would imagine even Eeyore, Oscar the Grouch, the Grinch, and Cruella Deville finding their happy places. Grown men in flowered swim caps reenacting the best of synchronized swimmers, women reminding themselves and all of us of the work and fun that only women can fully appreciate as they belted out “I’m a Woman,” a barbershop quartet (made up of about 20) singing harmonies that surely touched those honored at Heaven’s gates… songs out of the 60s made fresh with new boots and new voices as we all tapped our toes to “These Boots are Made for Walking”. And sweet young faces of children singing great Americana songs as they waved their red, white, and blue flags.
And so… how might events like these make a difference in our world? What true merit is there to songs that hang in the air and canvas covered in paint that could readily be shoved to the back of a closet? What does it matter that events like this take place all over the world in fancy theaters and small mud huts? It’s that people decide to reveal themselves in their purest. It’s that something in me wants to connect… to my own truth and to the truth that lives in you. It’s that we were created out of the imagination of a Divine Source to be more than facts and figures, more than our smallest thoughts, more than the horror we are also capable of.
Art is alive and it gives us life. It takes us back to something that we often cannot name or articulate. It sends us into action so that we can bear what we cannot bear. We throw the paint, we bang the drum, we rise to our toes, we hum, we sculpt, we pour out words that simply must breathe air, and we find ourselves. And in doing this, we feel capable. We feel safe. We grow wiser and deeper and more compassionate. We figure out how to sustain ourselves when nothing else sustains. And last but not least, we ignite joy.
Still, some will ask how art actually evokes the virtues most needed in the world. How, literally, does art transform war to peace, illness to health, or poverty to well-being? How can we prove the merits of something so esoteric? We prove it by imagining life without it. We prove it by honoring and acknowledging the artistic moments that take our breath away, that stir us to tears, that cause our bellies to hurt from the laughter that has been evoked by the sheer willingness of art to delight. We prove the merits of art by embracing the fact that we are a people of creative minds and hearts and this world and the lives we live in it are so much more than what can be proven. What is true is that when we shut out the most alive parts of ourselves, when we fail to touch or be touched, when life is narrowed to only this way or that… our humanity is lost to that which keeps us from truly knowing one another.
There are lots of debates taking place in our world. The right to bear art… simply shouldn’t be one of them.
Art, in its finest efforts, is a bridge of understanding that can reveal the answers this tired, worn world seeks.
May it be so. May it be so.
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