Exquisite Arts Magazine Vol 3 - Nov/ Dec 2016 | Page 34

Should Artists Have a
Are they Integral
Yes or No? What
“Artists Are Integral to our Society”
Art can express such a thing to a multitude of
people, and on a large scale, in that an artist can
express the experiences of his life, his feelings
toward others, in a relatively short period of time.
Surely people feel a desire to experience
humanity in pure and concentrated doses not
usually available in everyday life. The artist,
therefore, has a responsibility to society, as they
have gone through the effort to experience the
art. In order to live up to this, he must have
certain responsibilities to himself. Ambition and
art certainly do not conflict by necessity, still, the
performer runs a risk in careerism when the
presentation becomes about him (the
performer). Such ambition can make a
performer a slave to the audience, always
dependent on their adoration. It is in this sense
that art must be an act of sacrifice, and that a
musician who makes his spiritual development
the center of his life, rather than his career
development, will have a different impact on
humanity.

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While art can function in many ways and fill many
roles, it finds its pinnacle in expressing the
highest and most profound experiences of
humanity. In this, art, and especially music, can
provide something invaluable to society,
especially when its creation reflects that which
people find most valuable to their existence,
because such expression is often complex, the
public generally needs some education to
appreciate such art, and it is the responsibility of
the artist to provide that education so that art may
be understood and valued. This allows not only
for the artist to find a place in society, but also for
society to reap the spiritual benefits of
experiencing art.
The ultimate reasons why art should be crowned
with social responsibility is because, though it
takes time to come up with good art, it takes less
than a minute for the audience to access the art
and draw meaning from it. For this reason, artists
cannot be carefree of the society’s values when
they make art works, because people learn from