Hello <<First Name>>,
I’m delighted to share this May 2017 edition of Arts Awareness E-Newsletter with you. I sincerely hope you find it helpful as you play an active role in all your creative efforts. Please feel free to share it with others who might be interested, and if you know someone who may want to receive this newsletter monthly, please let them know how to sign up through www.artsawareness.com.
Why Fund the Arts?
Recent discussions and pending decisions regarding the government budget leave funding for the arts in limbo. If we care about a nation that’s both compassionate and creative; if we care about opportunities for young people, innovation, intellectual achievement, and our dignity as a national, then it is clear we cannot allow the arts to fall by the wayside. The value of the arts goes well beyond their social and economic benefits. The arts expand the mind and soul.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul,
and paints his own nature into his pictures.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
 Regardless of the genre, the arts help young people develop skills in a wide range of techniques, but that knowledge expands over time to develop new ways of seeing that can shape their thinking and their lives. Works of art in a wide variety of genres give all of us a special and unique way to understand and deal with our world. The arts help us understand ourselves, and they help shape the processes through which we find meaning in our lives. The arts, from the viewpoint of an observer of the works of others or as a creator of one’s own works, allow us the freedom to deeply explore our minds and spirit.
Arts experiences—
- help you to rise above doubt and distraction.
- help you learn to view everyday challenges with a new perspective.
- help you learn the benefits of a larger perspective.
- help you gain confidence and open up new possibilities in everyday life.
- help you see how passion and a sense of discipline coexist.
- help you learn to live with freedom, yet with order.
- help all of us connect to one another, inspire meaningful relationships, and deepen understandings among diverse groups.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
~ Aristotle
 In a world filled with increasing challenges, the arts help us see that we’re more connected than outward appearances might reveal. For example, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is recognized as a symbol of freedom and joy, yet it was written during an extremely repressive era in history. The finale of the work offers a way for all of us, even in today’s increasingly challenging world, to have hope and to find our way through chaos and darkness to peace and light. Harvey Sachs, in his book The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, argues for seeing the work as a "declaration in favor of universal brotherhood." Joy is needed for life and motivation, and art can become a model for moving on and reminding us of our humanity.
In 2009, international award winning Australian artist Wayne Roberts created a body of work inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Roberts’s art seems to encourage all of us to step out of darkness and open wide-eyed to the possibilities found through Beethoven’s deafness and silent imagination.
Current political and policy challenges, worldwide disputes, and the significant societal consequences facing the U.S. are numerous; however, it’s important that the arts not be neglected. In this environment of monumental challenges, all areas of spending are under scrutiny, but it’s not acceptable that the value of the arts be simply dismissed. The National Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 states, “While no government can call a great artist or scholar into existence, it is necessary and appropriate for government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent.” The arts have proven time after time throughout history that they’re a fundamental asset we cannot ignore. The arts are powerful reminders of who we are and should not be reduced to a matter of partisan politics. They’re essential to our resiliency as a nation.
Through a painting we can see the whole world.
~ Hans Hofmann
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