The Role of the Artist in Society Today
I came across an article yesterday where a survey in Singapore listed artists in the top five non-essential jobs. My favorite part of the article was the graphics and illustrations, which were of course created by an artist. That made me laugh a bit. It also made me pose a question to our creatives community, Art is a Record, on Facebook to see what you all think about artists today.
What is the role does the artist have in society today? There has been some good discussion so far, but I had far too much to say to keep my answer in a comment on Facebook, so here we go.
“Artists don’t create society, they reflect it.”
Artists are unnecessary. If we look at life according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, yes, art is part of self-actualization and can not be achieved if our basic needs are not being met. If we set aside the idea that we must have the lower needs met to enjoy the upper level needs, we will clearly see, art often helps people to work through things that may be deficient or hard to deal with in the lower tiers of that pyramid.
Art isn’t going to help you with physiological needs, of course. It can certainly help you if you’re dealing with issues of safety, belonging, and self-esteem. Art won’t save your physical life, but it can save your mental life. Art can serve as an incredibly important tool for psychological needs for many people. Art therapy is a very real and valuable thing. It can be administered by a professional, or it can be a person drawing our writing out their feelings. Now, I realize this relates more to individuals being able to help themselves, rather than looking at how artists are useful in society, but stick with me here.
“The work of art is a scream of freedom.”
Artists serve two major roles in society today. First is the role of the historian. Art is a record, which incidentally is the title of this blog and our Facebook group. It’s also the focus of a previous blog post I wrote. Art is the way humans process emotions, memorialize events, and leave their mark on the world. Humans were using art to make a record of their life before we even had a written language. Case and point: the famous cave paintings at Lascaux. Those paintings were created 17,000 years ago! That is mind blowing. Hunters and gatherers took the time to create art, and now we have a record of that time frame.
“What a society deems important is enshrined in its art.”
The second role of artists in society today is to be whatever the world needs it to be. When the whole world feels like a dumpster fire people need somewhere to escape. People turn to paintings, movies, books, poetry, music, and more as a means to escape the things they can not control. Creating and consuming art gives us hope. It is an agent of change. It is a mirror to society. When the world feels unjust, art gives us the freedom to push back. It gives us a voice larger than our own literal, singular voice.
“The role of art in society differs for every artist.”
Art is joy. Totally unnecessary to physiologically live, but are the things worth sharing with others. Worth connecting over and worth living for. If we imagine a world with no artists we are looking at a bleak, bland world.
“We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
I completely understand that the survey from Singapore was in regards to the world wide pandemic we are living through in 2020, and I don’t disagree with it. In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, “Nobody’s child ever died because someone got a bad review in The New York Times. It’s just art. And as beautiful as art is, and as much as we love it, there is no such thing as an actual real-life Arts Emergency.” I think those words can give us artists a little freedom. Our work is totally unnecessary to live, but it is what creates our culture, supports our mental health, and serves as a record of our existence.
In an effort to foster a creatives community I’ve started a Facebook group called Art is a Record, the same name as this blog. I would love for you to join in the fun as we discuss creative living, projects, art, and life.
