Why care about art?

Our once sterile uptown streets are coming alive with art.  But the truth remains – most Charlotteans could not give a shit.

It’s an understandable reaction.  Museums, galleries, even art itself can feel inaccessible, daunting, intimidating, or simply irrelevant.  Why should people step into the Bechtler?  If they do go, won’t the “I’m not sure I get it or give a damn” sign flashing above their heads be detectable by the artsy people?  What can be gained from a trip to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture that couldn’t be read in a book?  Isn’t a dance performance just a dance performance, a musical performance just music?  How does a static painting or object have any real affect on a person? Or on a city, for that matter?

These are all questions I’ve asked myself.  And I like art.  I spent my first 25 years of life in Washington, D.C., where there is a gallery or museum for every Starbucks.  Twenty of those 25 years I spent in a dance studio.  In college, when I wasn’t studying the art of language, I was cramming my feet into ballet shoes or learning the creative science behind choreography.  And still, I can at times find myself among the masses in Charlotte who believe our city’s booming art world has nothing to do with me.

During her 2009 Oscar acceptance speech, Penelope Cruz addressed this question of relevance so divinely that it has since shifted my perspective.  With trembling conviction, Cruz shared,

“I always felt that this was, this ceremony was a moment of unity for the world because art, in any form, is and has been and will always be our universal language and we should do everything we can, everything we can, to protect its survival.”

Art is our universal language.  It requires no translation, or level setting.  Art doesn’t care where you came from.  It is unconcerned with your background, education or economic status.  It doesn’t demand that those who look at it be cultured or sophisticated.  Art doesn’t hold an expectation or required reaction.  It just wants you to come and see it.

Experiencing art offers individuals a freedom they rarely find anywhere else in life.  You can see what you want to see, feel what you want to feel, and no one can tell you that you’re wrong. Art allows two people to stand side by side and look at the exact same thing yet see it differently – and when they share their differing perspectives, rather than judge, defend or dismiss, they cock their heads and attempt to see what the other sees.

If art can imitate life, I simply don’t know of anything more relevant to us all.

~ Amanda Pagliarini