The Essential Need For Art
Why We Do What We Do
This past Labor Day weekend my husband and I were gifted two tickets to an arts venue in Montana called Tippet Rise. It’s a vast prairie landscape encased in mountains, 12,500 acres in central Montana. The land is dotted with sculptures of monumental size by some of the world’s most celebrated artists. In addition, the center offers concerts during limited weekends in August and September, and we had scored two of those tickets. The beauty of the place is staggering. The musicians were extremely talented. The music was a spiritual manifestation of the views around us.
It is an immersive experience of visual art, music, and nature.
It is also a complete contrast to things that are happening in the rest of the world today, and it reminded me both of the fragility of art and of its power, and gave me hope.
Art For All
Tippet Rise is a nonprofit center founded by a couple who are themselves artists. They sat in the small concert hall a few rows ahead of us, as I imagine they do often. Anyone can enter at no cost and walk or ride bikes or enlist the aid of minibuses to get around (no personal cars) – except that you must register ahead because the center limits the number of people who can be there on any given day. The concerts are $10 per ticket for people over 21 and are given out by a blind lottery.
It is truly “art for all”. To see couples and families there walking slowly through the native grasslands on carefully laid-out paths, to witness the massive sculptures from a mile or more distant, to listen to music as lyrical as the views, made my whole body relax and my mind go quiet. License plates in the parking lot were tagged from Washington state to Idaho to Iowa to Massachusetts.
Translate This
When art is under threat – as in the financial dismantling of the National Endowment for the Humanities – or when art is co-opted for political purposes – as in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts or the Smithsonian Institution – then art is no longer for everyone. It is no longer “art for all” but manifests the importance of a single point of view. It doesn’t matter what that point of view is. Removing arts funding and restricting what is considered “art” is an art-killing, soul-draining, humanity-threatening action, and can make us worry that art is vulnerable, fragile.
We writers do what we do because we love making art. Because what we write is an expression of our own souls. Because what we write is an attempt to express what it means to be human. Because what we write we hope will touch other people.
When we consume art, as my husband and I were lucky enough to do last weekend, we feed our souls, our humanity, our connection to others.
Here’s a Suggestion
If you are feeling staggered by events in the world today, and you are an artist, go make more art. Our role in the world has never been more important.
And go consume art. Go to your nearest museum, concert hall, library. Support the artists and arts venues that move you. You’ll refresh your soul, mind, and body. You’ll connect with the greater humanity that is our only hope. Art is connection and community.
Art is fragile. But art is powerful.
Making art is power itself.
Oh, and check out the website for Tippet Rise. Turn on sound, spend a minute. Tell me what you hear. I guarantee it will make you feel better.