Art has many powers. And one of them is to bring people closer and motivate them to become their best selves. Let’s see how art can help communities to evolve.
Art is truly powerful. It is a medium that allows artists to express their thoughts, feelings, and concerns creating a link between a consumer of art and the whole world. Without a doubt, any of us can come up with at least a couple of examples when music, literature, or visual arts became a speaking trumpet for a creator as the latter fulfilled their mission to convey something truly important to the public.
It would be ignorant to say that art exists solely for our pleasure. It has a much more important mission than that. Art is supposed to be thought-provoking, to tap into our emotions thus forcing us to come to certain conclusions or simply experience a wave of feelings. And this is the power we can use to help communities evolve.
The only condition here would be that if our goal is to work with a community, art should be implemented in some public activities merely to track the way people respond to it and see if there is any progress. So let’s see how we all could use art to make the world around us better.
Stimulate people to gather and interact
Sometimes, the best relationships happen due to a coincidence. Someone met someone else when both of them just happened to be in the same place. However, that coincidence could be premediated.
It’s not a secret that art in public places attracts people. Even those monuments that are standing in our cities for years if not for centuries still are a powerful attraction for everyone who wants to admire them or — for that matter — to just take a photo for Instagram. While lucky towns and cities with a rich history could keep relying on their ancient treasures as something that would keep motivating the public to gather, we still should refresh the view with new art.
There are plenty of ways to bring new art to communities. It could be a new statue that reflects the hot topics of today. Or it could be a beautiful mural that will attract viewers and those eager to update their social media profiles with fresh photos. Finally, it could be an architectural structure or even a completely designed place that would make people want to come and share the experience of admiring the art.
Create public events in open spaces
People love to hang out. Especially, if they don’t have to pay much for it or the event is free at all. And when it comes to implementing art, there are plenty of ideas on how to combine it with public events. We could set a goal of supporting local artists and create an environment for them to show and sell their art. Another good idea is to tap into the heritage and organize an event that is based on the cultural history of this community. Finally, we could come up with a festival where professionals teach people how to create art.
We never know if an event we’re planning to hold just once becomes a tradition. For example, back in 1994, an artist Barnaby Evans created a WaterFire event in Providence to support local art. The event was held on the downtown waterways that were rather polluted and not a very popular place to visit. Yet, people instantly loved the event and kept holding it over and over again which forced the renovation of the downtown waterways. Now a single WaterFire event attracts around 100,000 people allowing them to meet, share experience, and create new relationships. Needless to say that WaterFire is a powerful opportunity for artists to present themselves.
Make young people more active
Youth is the main catalyst of progress. Young people are ambitious, full of energy and dreams, and willing to change the world for the better. We should use all that to help our communities transform. Moreover, statistics say that whenever a youth is involved, adults tag along. Events aimed at the younger generation attract volunteers and mentors making it easier for us to hold even more events.
Let people want to preserve their surroundings
Hope Community in Minneapolis started its activity in 1997 as a Listening Project to find out what ideas and wishes residents have. These conversations have shown that Peavey Park was the cornerstone that could help the community to make a progress. At that time, this park was riddled with crime and underutilized. Through the series of creative workshops, Hope Community has managed to spark creativity in residents, especially young ones, and they could create some designs that were approved and adopted by the Minneapolis Park Board.
Later, Hope Community created a Children’s Village — again, with the active help of residents. Today, it’s a housing complex safe for children and all the people living there. So over just a decade, a single organization turned a neighborhood burdened with poverty, crime, and drugs into a thriving community.
This example shows how important it is to let people participate in reinventing their surroundings. Even the best architect can’t create a neighborhood each resident will be eager to preserve. But support that architect with at least a group of residents from the location that’s being renovated — and you will get a community that will want to not just protect their surroundings, but improve it, too.
Art has tremendous power of uniting people and infecting them with passion and desire to do something. With its help, we can turn around even the most seemingly hopeless community and change it for the best.