How Art Connects People
I’ve previously written about how we can heal ourselves through art and how it helps children and how bad art can actually be good for you. In this post, I want to talk about how we connect with other people through art.
It’s no surprise that practicing art has many benefits, for children, teenagers, and adults alike. While other activities, such as sports, connect us by a means of staying fit and healthy, art can have the same effect, just on our minds rather than bodies.
When it comes to visual art, it has the power to connect people by allowing them to explore their imagination when viewing art. It allows you to feel and express emotions which you can then share with people. Sometimes, we can be surprised by how emotionally attached we feel to a particular piece of art.
Appreciating art becomes an experience that enriches us. For example, when we visit an exhibition at an art gallery, we often leave the exhibition reflecting upon the pieces we viewed and what emotions they brought out in ourselves.
Sharing those thoughts and feelings with those we love and care about can also bring us closer together, as it gives us an insight into the other person’s mind and gives us a greater understanding of who they are. Sometimes, we think we’re different, but art can make us realise that we have a lot more in common than we first believed.
Art doesn’t just connect us with those we already know, but also with strangers - in non-socially distanced times. Now of course stay 2 meters away from anyone and don’t go to exhibitions or to the theatre, but once they return and you’re able to comfortably visit an exhibit, you might end up talking about the piece in front of you with the person next to you. At a theatre performance, it’s easy to connect with people attending the show in the lounge during the intermission or afterward the performance.
Art has been a significant and also crucial part of human life since its very beginning. Cave paintings were used as a way to preserve memory and bring the community together. It’s a skill that’s been passed on through thousands of years and is still as important today as it was then.
It goes beyond barriers of language and culture and is something which everyone can share and take part in. Author Brené Brown once wrote that “Art has the power to render sorrow beautiful, make loneliness a shared experience and transform despair into hope.” Those words certainly make us understand why art has the power to connect people, no matter how different we may think we are.