Why a Society Needs Art
When we learn about a great writer, musician or other artist, one of the most interesting facts about their life is where they were born and raised. A good town or city will produce good artists; Florence, Venice, Salzburg, and Prague are just some examples of cities that raised great writers, artists and composers to appreciate beauty with their beautiful built environments. Surrounding people with beauty is a fundamental principal for building better communities.
But perhaps we have to go back a step. Why is art important in the first place? Why is it vital to make beautiful things? Why does a society need artists? The answer is all around us today. We've built a society that doesn't care about art, and it's not only ugly. It lacks meaning and purpose. It is utterly void of any sense of true worth beyond money and power. Our block-shaped buildings and utilitarian environment have reduced everything to the least common denominator, discouraging us from reaching for the mysteries we cannot grasp---mysteries like beauty.
Beauty has no place in a utilitarian society because beauty's purpose is caught up in mystery. We cannot define or scale its importance because its whole purpose is to scale the depths of the human spirit to find what is important to us all. Its appeal is universal because we all have a longing for it, and we all seek it out in various ways.
A society that disregards that quest builds environments that are void of meaning, leaving us to find meaning and purpose on our own. This is a type of evil. Meaning and purpose are good, and evil is the lack of something good. When we make something for the sole purpose of efficiency, we are conveying that efficiency is the only meaning and purpose that thing should have.
Traditional buildings, furniture, clothing and tools had aesthetic designs on them because their makers found deeper purpose in their work, and wanted to share that deeper purpose in their craftsmanship. The patterns on their craftworks conveyed harmony with natural patterns, and the principles by which they lived. Their work thus became not only efficient, but also a testimony to the deeper values that enriched their lives.
That is why art matters. Even when it leaves the mysteries of life open to commentary, it at least makes us think about them. If we've forgotten the value of art, we may have forgotten the meaning of life as well. It's not just to sleep, eat, make money and seek pleasure. It's to seek and discover life's mysteries such as truth, goodness, and beauty. To seek these mysteries is to pursue the One who created them and sustains them, the One who is them. In pursuing him we nurture a relationship with him. All in all, this is just a long-winded way of saying the purpose of life is to love God, as well as everything---and everyone---he created. If that's not the purpose of art as well, then I don't know the point of it either.
David Kilby is managing editor of Catholic World Report and author of 3 books available on Amazon.
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