How Do the Arts Benefit Society, Essay Example

It is a fact that art plays a pivotal role in making people’s lives noticeably rich. Consider imagining a world without art, or rather video games without graphics. Art plays a significant role in stimulating different parts of brains incited to make people laugh. Art provides us with the opportunity to be more creative and express ourselves better. For some people, their principal reason of getting out of bed is art (Read 64). To this, we can say that is something that makes us well-rounded and more thoughtful human beings.

In addition, art makes a large part of people’s daily lives in that human beings may hardly stop thinking about it. It is noteworthy that when one looks around, one sees a product that is somebody’s design, and that is art. The clothes and shoes people wear are products of art. One’s window curtain is art; therefore, it said that art is something that has functions and posses aesthetical pleasure to people’s eyes.

It is right to say that art is what makes the world in that it applies to all aspects of life. It is crucial for all age groups, communities, generations, developmental ideas, and fashion. Art is as momentous as any subject at school is. The NCLB (No Child Left behind Act) has it that art should have the same weight as the core academic subjects such as math, science, and other academic subjects. This approach has proved improvement in students learning and has thus integrated into the curriculum as part of the comprehensive education reform strategy (Kouzel 86). The American public believes that to develop an all-round student art is extremely vital.

Art has several benefits to society. The historians and anthropologists in any society who try to neglect, or ignore arts would not only thrive, but also disappear. For example, Sparta, despite its name that existed for an extraordinarily long period and even today disappeared because they did not practice the art at all (Davies 312). On the other hand, Athens was and is still a masterpiece that has stood the test of time. Considering Parthenon as an example, it may seem to others just as a ruin but people cannot stop feeling something active and alive (James 46). There are many examples of arts everywhere on earth, and without these arts, humanity would diminish from the planet due to lack of it.

Art benefits the society and humanity at large as it stimulates people’s emotions and intelligence. In this regard, art is a form of communication and stimulation. Art helps the society to communicate with each other. Historical aspects of art find itself in classes today, and it helps in informing how the ancient people lived. Art provides a basis for understanding history of people and societies that lived before us (Abbott 24). Art is also useful in stimulating imagination of human beings. This helps in enhancing positive thinking in the society.

The cave dwellers used art to make them feel intellectually unique. They used art to reflect how they were mentally developed. The intensity or details in the painting demanded more hand movements and coordination of the brain, and complexity of the brain. Complexity of art represents how uniquely intelligent a specie is. It is evident that art helps the society to express their dominion over other animals and this makes the society more responsible in its courses on earth.

Art is a mirror of time on earth. The future generation will look at the past art in order to evaluate and know the things cherished and valued most. The pieces of art produced by any person are a reflection of the heart and brain. This will keep communicating with the world long after one’s demise (Christenson 312).

The ability of art to the open mind is applicable in hospitals, and it has proved to help in improving health of people. Some therapies conducted in hospitals use arts in helping patients cope with some conditions that are not treatable through traditional clinical practices. Art has been applied in treatment of children with autism (Kouzel 35).

In addition, art provides a ground for challenging the society to examine critically the reality by going beyond what we know or what we made to think talking heads of the day. It serves the purpose of documenting historical events and the mood of the society. It is noteworthy that art can help the society live fruitful and useful lives. In this regards, Art intertwined into the society, and we cannot live without it. Art helps in opening one’s eyes and understand the environment. An iPad is an excellent example of contemporary art. Art makes life stimulating and enjoyable.

The learning experiences in the arts leads to development of academic skills as reading mathematics, and language development. Some art forms like dancing enhance and upgrade the development of reading and language skills. Tests, as the “read and Write”, done in students who participate in art has significantly proved to be better off than for those who do not participate in such activities. Literacy skills for drama students are high. Use of dramatic enactment helps students reach curricular goals. Such goals include understanding of a story, reading comprehension and fundamentally, the writing skills.

Art gives the power to innovate. Innovation is what brings progress and development in a community. If people stopped creating, or if they stopped using art to develop new ideas, this would bring the world to a standstill. There would be no progress; in the music industry, there would be no new dance works, in the offices, there would be no new filing system, in the garment industry, there would be no new fashion of clothing, in the transport industry, there would be none new design of cars, airplanes or any other transportation facility. Art brings out one’s power to innovate by showing how imagination configured into creation.

Art teaches one how to think beyond boundaries. It enables one to overcome obstacles bringing in the changes in “forward thinking”. If art widely applied art’s innermost concepts leads to monumental progress in public policies, medicine technology.

Art inspires one to know one’s self. It enables people to tell how they would wish their identification or definition to be. Art leads to self-exploration and self-evaluation where people make sense of themselves. They are able to identify their potential thus knowledge of what they can offer the human society. After self-identification, one can pioneer an action that makes advancements in history. Art in this case viewed as a divining magical rod; it leads people to their capabilities and their inborn strength to inspiration and creation.

Art is a tool that enables one to gain mastery wisdom in self-expression. One gains the courage to defend his /her innovation regardless of how tiny or how non-significant it is. The fact is that it is original; if, for example, a child comes up with a painting, and given a chance to present it before a crowd, then this will be the basic ground of developing an intelligent painter. Wisdom gained by the fact that people took their time listening and looking at her negligible work. This acts as the child is stepping stone to developing the painter talent.

The art expands the individuals’ capacity for empathy by drawing them into the experiences of people from different communities and cultures. Individuals obtain new references that enable them accept and absorb unfamiliar people’s cultures and attitude.

Art in some way influences the attitude and behavior especially on the youth. There are the developmental attitudes like self-discipline and self-efficacy that gained with time. The ethical moral behavior as reduced drop- out rate and frequent school attendance improves school performance. The youth tend to gain general life skills through art. They understand the consequences of one’s behavior and the importance of working in teams (Davies 76). They also develop essential pro-social attitudes; build social bonds hence improving self-image in the end.

Art articulates social benefits to the community. The social benefits in the form of interactions create a sense of community identity thus help in building social capital. The other form of social benefit is the building of the community’s organizational capacity where skills, infrastructure, and leaders developed. People tend to organize and get involved in volunteer associations and civic institutions.

Art has the intrinsic benefits of captivation and pleasure. Captivation associated with the initial response on seeing a piece of art. One may be absorbed to it thus capturing the attention and the desire to know more of what the artist meant by producing that piece of art. Such feelings and experiences connect people more into the natural world opening their new ways of seeing and capturing the world. Pleasure enables individuals to have the imaginative experience. One feels the intense, meaningful version feeling of the experience. This brings in innermost pleasure of satisfaction associate with the work of art that the individual feels is disorienting or tragic (Kouzel 96).

Other intrinsic benefits include the cognitive growth where the individual focuses their attention on a work of art. They make sense out of the artwork and bringing out their meaning based on their understanding. There is also the expression of communal meaning where the public sphere clearly defined in the way a community expresses itself by its artwork (Davies 122). Art provides a voice to the community, revealing their culture, while criticizing the outdated cultural believes.

Art has some economic value in it. While it creates a direct, source of income for the artists it also a source of revenue to the government. Those gaining any cash relating to art spend it enabling the economy to continue flowing. The indirect benefits include the attraction of firms and individuals to locations where arts are within the vicinity. The availability of the arts in reservation centers as the museums for the next generation has a “public right” benefit.

According to (James 52) art is of paramount importance that one leaves something designed behind, (after death), to benefit the generation that follows. Art is there to challenge, inspire, and change people. Concepts adapted in art are personal. If people understand themselves and believe in their ability to create then their combined efforts changes the world.

Works Cited

Abbott, Susan. Fine art publicity: the complete guide for galleries and artists. New York: Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 2002.

Christenson, Allen. Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community: The Altarpiece of Santiago Atitlán. Texas: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Davies, Stephen. The philosophy of art. UK: Blackwell Pub., 2006

James, David. Art, myth and society in Hegel’s aesthetics. Continuum studies in philosophy. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009.

Kouzel, Ilene. Benefits of art therapy intervention: treating the withdrawn vs. the acting-out child. Los Angeles, California: Immaculate Heart College, 1979

Read, Herbert. Art and society. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2011