The Importance of the Arts with Mona Filip
TRANSCRIPT:
Art is really a relation.
It’s a form of communication, of understanding each other and of truly relating to one another.
Today we are going to talk about the importance of the arts and why as cultural entrepreneurs and arts professionals we do what we do. Why it’s important. Welcome to High Five. This is a series where I have a guest join me to give us five tips or insights or, sparks of inspiration and information for arts professionals and creative entrepreneurs.
Independent curator and writer, Mona Filip, joined me to share her insights on the profound importance of the arts. Here is what she shared:
“It’s something that keeps coming up. This questioning and and self-doubt about, the importance of, of doing what we do, and makes us question whether what we can contribute is of any significance.
Yeah. So these five insights are really what I tell myself.
Five, ideas about why art is important.
#1: Art is fundamental to being human.
It is through through what we do, in terms of artistic creation and enjoyment and contemplation, that we really define ourselves as human beings. And, different from from other species in the animal world. In the natural world.
And I think as far as we know, we are the only species that creates fictional worlds. We view our own existence as humans, as story. We are both narrators and protagonists of our own lives and we create and enjoy things that have no utilitarian function, but that rather do have a very deep intellectual, philosophical, or spiritual one.
So that gets me to the second point.
#2: Art is knowledge.
Art is an essential tool for understanding the world that we live in. It is a form of inquiry, of asking existential questions, social and political questions, a way of exploring and understanding the world in which we exist, both from the point of view of the maker, the artist, the creator who searches for meaning and then finds creative ways to transmit their investigations and their acquired knowledge.
And on the other side, for viewers, audiences, however, we want to name our interlocutors, as receptors, who in their turn interpret and reach that understanding proposed by the artist. Or, take it even further with their own thought process and, and experience.
So because of that, the interconnection between maker and receiver….
#3: Art is a relation.
It’s a form of communication, of understanding each other and of truly relating to one another. It has the capacity to teach us empathy, to open our hearts and minds to the experiences, histories, and even the inner lives of other people.
Art has the capacity to build dialog, across. And despite cultural differences, social gender based differences.
It is through art that we can actually imagine. Well, in this imaginative way. We can imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes, and we can see the world from their perspective.
And that, also gives a lot of meaning to our in the sense….
#4: Art is power.
We find in art, I believe, an unrivaled capacity to speak truth to power
And I think proof of that is that censorship wouldn’t exist if art was not feared by those in positions of authority.
Art has the power to change and expand our imagination, and therefore, it helps us imagine the world differently and install desire to bring what is imagined into reality.
And so my last point is that….
#5: Art is therefore survival.
Whenever we are confronted with our mortality, whether it’s through major events like war and persecution or even a run of the mill midlife crisis, or just daily contemplation of mortality. We need art even more, in those moments for recapturing a sense of meaning and purpose,
And art is what helps us rebuild the world, helps us to conjure up better ways of of constructing new realities.
So this is my, my plea for art and its relevance to to society and to human existence.”
Thank you so much to Mona Filip for her insights into the importance of the arts. You can find her at monafilip.com. We love to hear from our readers - what your thoughts are related to the power and importance of the arts. Watch for another High Five for you, with a new guest, next week.