‘When times are tough, art is salve for the ache’. In the great debate into the importance of the arts, these words by writer and humourist Randy Cohen truly emphasise the role that the arts play in human life. Whilst they, of course, have to be considered secondary to physiological needs such as food and shelter, the arts contribute to other elements including social belonging, education and passion to provide a certain quality of life. Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England, reinforced this idea in The Observer in December 2014, stating that whilst ‘medicine attends to the body … the arts cares for the person’.
The arts are particularly unique in their development of key social values, including greater co-operation, diversity and fortitude. In a time of funding cuts and reductions both the presence of and access to the arts are suffering tremendously, therefore it can be certain that it will be society’s wellbeing bearing the consequences. Without music to move us, theatre to divert us or books to enlighten us the prospective future of our emotional health looks increasingly bleak, and for that reason it is more important than ever to focus attention on the preservation of the arts sector.
The importance of smaller arts organisations can often become overlooked in comparison to the larger issues at hand in the arts industry, and yet these are the places that provide for the artistic and cultural needs of their local communities – communities that deserve the same artistic fulfilment as those more conveniently located in city centres. It is also these organisations that create an essential bridge between amateur and professional, between learning and experience, and between groundwork and achievement.
Even the great economist John Maynard Keynes identified that the arts were not just some ‘dinky thing’ to be enjoyed when you could afford it, but were ‘as important as GDP’ (Today, BBC Radio 4, 9 February 2015). As chairman of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), later the Arts Council, Keynes played a vital role in establishing the place of the arts as a national social service. His influential contribution to society’s economic well-being instigated recognition of the arts as an important and central part of life.
Whilst we may not need the arts in order to survive, it can be argued that we do need them in order to live. Furthermore the arts are not only an indication of societal development; they are a sign of a successful civilisation. Focusing on the arts signifies progression beyond fundamental survival and demonstrates a higher quality of life – surely an ultimate goal that we all collectively share.
This piece was written as part of my work for Clonter Opera Theatre, and published within an article in The Chronicle Series (The Chronicle, Thursday 23rd April 2015, www.chronicleseries.co.uk).
All the World's a Stage 