We Need the Arts Now More Than Ever

You’ve been hearing this a lot lately, because it’s true: We’re anxious and depressed. The pandemic, economic worries, political divisions, inequities… it’s all too much.

Thankfully, the human urge to create gives us a release valve.

The arts: Good for what ails you

Before I go any further, I want to define what I mean when I say “the arts.” I believe we need to be very generous in our definition of art to avoid snobbishness and exclusion. I’m not going to declare myself an authority and draw a line between classical music and popular music, between the paintings you see in museums and the illustrations you find in books, between The Seventh Seal and Get Out. I’m putting all music, visual art, theater and film, fiction, poetry, and dance in the same bucket: the arts.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s why I believe this broad category — the arts — is so important now.

The arts can comfort us.

In the past few months, how often have you turned to music or a good book or a favorite movie to escape from reality for a while? While we absolutely need to engage with the difficulties that are facing us, there’s nothing wrong with giving ourselves a break as we need it. And it’s far healthier to escape through a good book than it is through one too many drinks.

But turning to art is not merely escaping for a while. Good art speaks to us, almost as if the creator were holding our hands and gazing into our eyes. This recently hit home for me when I read Mary Oliver’s poem “Franz Marc’s Blue Horses.” In the poem, the horses in the painting come alive, and the poet enjoys their presence. She writes:

I do not know how to thank you, Franz Marc.
Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually.
Maybe the desire to make something beautiful
is the piece of God that is inside each of us.

“Franz Marc’s Blue Horses” by Mary Oliver

So Franz Marc’s painting brings a kind of comfort to Oliver, and she brings comfort to me through her poem.

There is still another odd sort of comfort that some people find through the arts — the comfort of experiencing the darkness through the eyes of an artist. This isn’t for everyone, but there’s a reason why many people picked up Albert Camus’ The Plague this year. In fact, some people with anxiety find horror movies comforting.

This sort of comfort through horror and dystopian fiction leads me to another reason we particularly need the arts now.

The arts give us a healthy way to vent our feelings.

When I was a moody teenager, I took great delight in playing Robert Schumann’s “First Loss” with as much pathos as I could muster. The world weighs heavily upon you when you are a teen. In adulthood, when I’m wrestling with a frustration, I’ll sit down and write fiction. It’s pretty bad fiction, but its purpose is primarily a way for me to vent and only secondarily a way to improve as a writer.

People have used creative expression to channel their feelings for thousands of years. We pen lyrics with thinly disguised political commentaries. We pour our anxiety into a dramatic painting. We find a sense of release through artistic creation or performance.

What does all this have to do with making a difference?

Because art feeds the soul, we need to do what we can to support creators and creativity.

When possible, we should support the arts financially.

People are struggling financially, and discretionary items, like donations to arts organizations or book purchases, are often the first things we cut from our budgets. (Although there are people like Erasmus who say, “When I get a little money, I buy books; if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”)

But if you do have the money, consider making a donation to a museum or performing arts organization and/or supporting an artist by buying their work or even giving monthly donations through a platform like Patreon.

And please don’t pirate their work or ask a creator to give you some of their work “for exposure.” Like all of us, creators have bills to pay, and even if they have a “day job” (many do), they still deserve to be paid for their work.

This doesn’t mean you can’t access art for free. Use the library. Visit a museum’s website. Attend a free virtual concert. Just make sure you’re accessing the art legally.

Like an artist’s work? Let others know!

Give someone a positive review online. Recommend them to someone who says, “I’m looking for a musician/illustrator/etc.” If you can legally share their work with a wider audience, do it! I love this hopeful story about singer Reymar Perdomo, who wrote a heartfelt song about having to leave Venezuela and who has begun to acquire a following thanks in part to a viral video.

Make artistic expression a regular part of your life.

It doesn’t matter if you can make a living from your art. It doesn’t even matter if you’re good at it. Express yourself through the arts for your own sake. And if you are talented, share your work with others in some way. You’ll experience the joy of creating something beautiful and give joy to others who get to read, view, or listen to your creation.