What Art Means to Me

If you had asked me a couple of months ago "What is Art?" I would most likely have told you it was oil paintings in museums, sculptures, maybe even music and theatre. After attending the Art in Society workshops I now realise that Art is more than that. Art is everywhere and is a large part of our lives. Art takes its shape in many forms and some forms can be quite obvious. However, its the hidden Art which I now see. From children's paintings of scary purple monsters, carefully designed graffiti on the railway walls or the traditional ceilidh dancing at a family wedding, Art is a welcome addition to every day life. The area I have found most interesting through the workshops is theatre. As someone who has just begun in an amateur theatre company, I have been paying more attention to how a production comes together. From the atmosphere of a venue and the comfort of the seats to the technical side of special effects, casting of actors and actresses and musical score, I now realise how much needs to be taken into consideration when putting on a production. The first performance we saw as a class was the Whitechapel Murders where a very talented Clair Hume captured the audience's attention and sympathy for her character. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and in particular the very simple way in which the story was told without the use of gimmicks and technology. Leo Tolstoy once said " And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man's expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based." With regards to Clair Hume's portrayal of a murdered prostitute it was clear from the audience reaction that she did capture the essence of her character.

We can look at Art on a much wider scale however .If we take Glasgow as an example, it is overflowing with an abundance of quality art. From the Art Gallery and Museum, the Burrell Collection and the Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow plays host to some of the most prestigious collections in Europe. When Glasgow became the European City of Culture in 1990 it deployed a strategy to use art as a means to rejuvinate the city. By showing the art world all it has to offer, Glasgow reaped the benefits of increased revenue and a newfound respect from the rest of the world. This to me shows how powerful Art can be if it is shared, just as it should be.