Can culture, can art help heal an ailing neighborhood?

[Generalist]

Hi, thanks to anyone who shows interest. A little while ago I caught some of a PBS special on art, mainly focusing on current artists.

Two of them had the goal of using art to change people on a large scale for the better. One artist I think, was looking to make a

change in society, with his combination of dance and sculpture, the other started buying up buildings in ailing neighborhoods and I

think turning them into places where art shows could happen and using some of the building materials for art. Both seemed to really

believe their art was going to, 1) really going to have a major effect on society and 2) by injecting art and culture into the ailing

neighborhoods, they were going to turn around, sent down the road to positive transformation. My questions is, do you think art

could really do this? I am not completely questioning the power of creativity and art in its various forms to affect people and create

major change. We have all heard or experienced art changing the lives of others and ourselves, but does the power of art end on the

grand scale? Will seeing people dance around in weird outfits from things made from thrift shops change society? Will some art

galleries really change a bad neighborhood? And if it did change it, how do you think it would? Would it change in a way that would

be beneficial to the people who already live there? Or is doing something like this, only going to affect people who are already

interested in it and most people are probably just going to ignore it? Thanks again.

 

[ZNP-TBA]

Eh, I kind of see art as a luxury. It definitely has a place in society but in an 'ailing neighborhood' I think real world pragmatism and cynicism takes hold over idealism and art is an expression of idealism. I know people from downtrodden neighborhoods and they care more about having a reasonable degree of safety and security and a place to work for a decent wage. Once security and jobs become more of a reality then I think art will be appreciated more.

 

[Hiraeth]

As an artist myself, I'm going to be biased, but I do think art has the potential to change society, especially ones with messages. Just look at artists like Banksy, or even the dadaists. You know the saying, a picture tells a thousand words? I think visual art has a natural inclination where sometimes words aren't enough to describe something. It's like if somebody tells you something depressing, like animals go through extreme forms of unnecessary cruelty in slaughterhouses, but you don't fully grasp it until you see it for yourself. In this case, the actions have a greater effect than words, because when you see something right before your eyes, it's like you can feel the energy that is present in that moment. In that instance, I think any form of visual art can have that same effect on someone too.

Here's an example of a man who turned a poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh to a work of art that is now a tourist attraction called Randyland, all through years of decorating his home and a few others in his block with mostly recycled material. It brought people from his neighborhood together by volunteering their time to help out in order to create a beautiful monument in their neighborhood, something that they could all be proud of.

Of course, not all art has the power to change society for the greater good, and I think most probably doesn't, but there are instances where it can create a positive difference in a more individualistic way where somebody can see a work of art and relate to it in their own way. In addition, making art itself can have a healing effect on a person's mental health, in which case it can provide a positive change to an individual due to the meditative qualities it can bring, like art therapy.

So all in all, I do believe art can bring a greater change to society, but mostly on a more individualistic scale than a broader one, because not all art is going to have the same effect for every person.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Hi, thanks to anyone who shows interest. A little while ago I caught some of a PBS special on art, mainly focusing on current artists.

Two of them had the goal of using art to change people on a large scale for the better. One artist I think, was looking to make a

change in society, with his combination of dance and sculpture, the other started buying up buildings in ailing neighborhoods and I

think turning them into places where art shows could happen and using some of the building materials for art. Both seemed to really

believe their art was going to, 1) really going to have a major effect on society and 2) by injecting art and culture into the ailing

neighborhoods, they were going to turn around, sent down the road to positive transformation. My questions is, do you think art

could really do this? I am not completely questioning the power of creativity and art in its various forms to affect people and create

major change. We have all heard or experienced art changing the lives of others and ourselves, but does the power of art end on the

grand scale? Will seeing people dance around in weird outfits from things made from thrift shops change society? Will some art

galleries really change a bad neighborhood? And if it did change it, how do you think it would? Would it change in a way that would

be beneficial to the people who already live there? Or is doing something like this, only going to affect people who are already

interested in it and most people are probably just going to ignore it? Thanks again.

It all depends on how strategic you are about it. If some random guy will repaint some walls and two girls will "dance around the hood" in the name of love two times a month then nothing is going to happen. However if you create some "corner" where you can do artistic stuff in freedom then the odds are that people will come/join. The thing is that for good portion of people doing artistic things can have anti-depressive effect (I am not one of them) and you can trully "repair" them by creating the alternative from their horrible reality by making the sense of belonging and cut them of from being online all the time. Once this group (proper term would be "art colony") is developped there are a number of possibilities. This will develope friendships and then these people togather may want to try starting a business togather in order to move from rock bottom or their parent's house, some may even marry with time.


Another thing that is possble comes from the fact that people attracted to art are generally more empathic/emotional ... or however you want to call it. Therefore when you have a well defined group you can also take various other actions in order to repair social climate (what artistic people always want to do actually). Such actions are repairing the local playground, repairing some fences or walls, creating the larger HQ for the colony, gather the trash that is around the street and solving various similar problems. I know plenty of people who felt like crap for this or that reason and in the end it turned out that good part of that cake is in the fact that they live in junk, crap and they are surrounded with depression. Therefore they become depressed and inert as well. I for the last few years "cure" people around me by providing the "sense of future" and I think that this really matters. Things should never get "stuck".


All of this is a long shot but it can work if it is designed and guided well enough. After all stuff like this were relatively common before the Internet, which can suck out the whole day even if at the end you did absolutely nothing.