Arts within our lives

From doing the elective and going to experience music, drama, and art I feel like I have found out the importance of arts everybody’s life. Before the experiences I was aware that the arts were a large part of our culture, but I didn’t really realise how much they fill our lives;

“The arts enrich our lives, make them more worth living. A significant number of the people we learnt about in school or through the media, as significant contributors to our national and global cultures, are artists-writers, painters, sculptures, musicians, composers, and dancers throughout the ages…in testament to their continued impact and importance, the modern societies have built museums and developed technologies so generations of humanity will forever be able to enjoy, experience, and learn from their work."
http://docushare.hsd.k12.or.us

I have realised that from an early age people are using arts to learn all the time, not necessarily learning about the arts; although it is also important sometimes. People are learning about arts and artists on a daily basis, but they are sometimes not aware of it. For example, there are always people who say they hate anything to do with the theatre including acting and drama, but every day they watch actors and performers on TV in soaps and adverts. Music and art are present all the time as well to make programmes and adverts more appealing and if there were none of the arts our lives would be very boring! They are not just about showing our culture, they are for our enjoyment and pleasure also.

The Arts are a way for people expressing themselves and showing others how they feel. If it is a tune that has been written, a play, or painting you can look at it and understand what the creator or performer was thinking which helps you to think about the bigger picture around you. Different pieces can make you feel different feelings and emotions, for example a painting of an orphan may make the observer feel sad or puzzled, whereas a song written by a Scottish composer may make you feel patriotic and proud.

However people feel about the arts they cannot deny that they make an impact on the world. For example, music is everywhere. It is on the radio, TV, internet, adverts, iPods….so it’s always around you. It can also bring people together from all over the world with thousands if not millions of people each year coming together for concerts and festivals. An example was Celtic Connections this year when Glasgow was invaded by music fans from all over the world for three weeks. I went to the festival club one night where artists and music enthusiasts could play, mingle and share their love for their music and culture, and totally loved it! There was such an exciting atmosphere, and everyone was thoroughly enjoying sharing their passion.

The same goes for artwork and theatre. People come together and share experiences to learn about other people’s thoughts, and just to enjoy themselves. When a piece of artwork is put on show, hundreds and thousands of people could look at it and try to take in how the artist was feeling and what the story is behind it. Similarly, millions of people tune in for soaps on TV and generally gossip about the characters and their lives to their friends. They think they really know the characters and could almost forget that it is acting. Similarly, many people visit theatres each year for pantomimes and shows which become nice family nights out for a special treat.

To conclude, from my experience of the elective, I have found that I have learnt more about arts within society than I did before. They are all around as, and we learn about them more than we realise half the time. I think it’s important for the younger generation to know how important they are for our culture as well as enjoyment, so I think I will try to incorporate that into my teaching in future.