Feb 27

Feb 27 What is art?

There is not just one answer to the question of “what is art?” So many have defined art in very different ways, giving importance to one or more aspects of what art is, should be or should be doing. For instance, art has been defined:

For its aesthetic value, “An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.” ― Andy Warhol

For its political power , “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” ― Banksy

For its healing power, “Art is to console those who are broken by life.” ― Vincent van Gogh

For its expressive power, “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” ― Edward Hopper

For providing a form of escapism, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ― Pablo Picasso

And even for its commercial value, “Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it.” ― Frank Zappa

These are just a few examples of what people have to say about art. Many more artists, scholars and philosophers had their say about it. Truth is, the answer to the question ‘what is art?’ can be very personal and each of us will have a different answer.

At the Duncairn, we also have to say something about it:

“Art for me has been a life long, shape-shifting journey. I love working with and for people, so I've been privileged to have a life in Community Arts. As a result of this, the best way I can describe 'art', from my own perspective, is that it’s an experience, a reflective experience at the end of an immersive, creative, expressive and imaginative period of time or process.

Facilitating in the arts has presented me with so many thought provoking, and sheer bust out laughing encounters, that it is impossible for me to ignore arts power to transform, to open up and reveal something very different in every individual. It’s an incredible thing to discover something within ourselves that perhaps we may have never discovered had we not taken a leap into a creative process.

I wish I had a pound for every time a participant said 'oh, I don't know why i'm here, I don't have an artistic bone in my body'...and I wouldn't miss for the world the moment when each person looks back on their time here at The Duncairn, when they really look at the collective pieces of their creativity. However, what is really important is acknowledging the hidden aspects of every group encounter.... We form new friendships, share experiences, support strangers and open up to new possibilities. Wrap this all up and that is 'art' to me.”

Debbie Young — Outreach officer at the Duncairn