FREE ESSAY ON HOW ART IMPROVES OUR LIVES

HOW ART IMPROVES OUR LIVES

Art is a deliberate recreation of a new and special reality that grows from one's response
to life. It improves our existence by enhancing, changing and perpetuating our cultural
composition. "The great artist knows how to impose their particular illusion on the rest
of mankind," proclaimed Guy de Mauspassant.
Art improves our lives by directly and indirectly lift the morale of individuals,
creating unity and social solidarity. Art creates awareness of social issues. Art may
express and reflect the religious, political, and economical aspects of cultures. Art is
and can be what ever a culture says it is or what ever they want it to be. It involves
all people, those who conceive the idea of the work, execute it, provide necessary
equipment and materials, and people who make up the audience for the work. Art forms as
diverse as architecture, body decoration, clothing manufacture, and memorial sculptures
reflect social status. Art echoes the natural world. It gives order to the world and
intensity to human life. Art is a means of communion as well as communication. It
provides pleasurable experiences along with cerebral wealth. Art also helps us to express
our sentimental relations. It can beautify, surprise, inspire, stimulate imagination,
inform, tell stories, and record history. As someone once said, "Art is life."
Therefore, as teachers, it is our jobs to teach students about life through art. We must
have a penetrating comprehension ourselves of how art affects our society in order to
teach our students to comprehend the complex purposes of art. We must be aware of the
global culture and heritage from which art emerges. For example when teaching our
students art aesthetics, we must never let them think that there is only one way to view
art. Students, and especially teachers, should be acceptable to all ways in which art
evaluation can occur. Western aesthetics is based primarily on individuality,
originality, permanence, and form. These factors cannot be applied to art from every
culture. For example, African art is understood in terms of rites of passage, healing,
power, control, and commerce. Students must be taught to understand the principles of art
as they are understood by the cultural group in which they belong in order to truly
achieve global awareness and appreciation for art. Obviously, teachers must gain this
awareness themselves before they can impart it to their students. Travel, physically or
intellectually, is necessary for teachers who truly aspire to instill a devotion to
open-mindedness and tolerance in their students. Furthermore, teachers themselves must be
open to teaching about culturally diverse art, and learning the history and meaning of
behind such pieces. As teachers, we must constantly be open to expanding our base of
knowledge and learning new information to share with our students.
It is important to note that teaching art requires more than just looking at pictures,
listening to music or watching a dance. To teach art in a truly meaningful way,
principles of art history, production, criticism and aesthetics must be explored.
Students must be taught to value not only the beauty of art, but also the meaning,
elements and the history of art. Students do not naturally look at a painting and know
the principles contained in it, who created it and for what purpose. Students must learn
how to view and critique art in order to understand it. This understanding can come from
being immersed in an environment in which art is an essential component to learning. If
art is integrated throughout the curriculum, and is not relegated to half an hour per
week of drawing, cutting or pasting, then students can develop a love and understanding
for a variety of creative experiences involving artistic expression. An environment
supportive of art development can be obtained in any classroom in which the teacher
instills in the students a respect for the history, purpose and meaning of art. This
doesn't mean that all students have to be great artists capable of completing outstanding
works of art themselves; rather the implication is quite the opposite. Even students who
are not great artists themselves are capable of appreciating, understanding, and
perceiving art on a highly cognitive level. In order for this to happen students must
experience for themselves the production of art using specific elements, principles and
techniques. Once they have tried to create a particular effect, it is important to show
them the work of someone who mastered the task, and allow them to critique not only their
own work, but also the work of the professional artist. It is only by attempting to
create a piece of their own that students will truly understand how talented some artists
are. 
Despite the benefits of art production and criticism, an environment truly conducive to
artistic development must include both art history and art aesthetics. As mentioned
before, it is to provide a culturally diverse perspective in these areas.