By Cris de Souza

Art gives us an experience like nothing else can. Art exhibitions, whether in a formal gallery or part of an informal event, provide the opportunity for art to be explored. It is a chance to connect, disconnect and reconnect. Also it is a chance to understand and explore perceptions, feelings and innovative thoughts. It adds, subtracts, divides and multiplies.Here are some reasons why I strongly feel that art exhibitions could benefit any community:

NEW EXPERIENCE

There are many who have never visited an art exhibit. Those who have may have only done so a few times. Artists see things from a different perspective; thus art must be experienced face to face. Only from a personal experience can one truly get the true sense of its magnitude. 

THERAPY

People live in a stressful world. Looking and experiencing art can carry one away from this stressful world as one enters a different atmosphere. Art can be a therapeutic tool enabling us to live more fulfilled lives, thus helping us with our most intimate and ordinary dilemmas. Experiencing an exhibition of art may generate forms of meditation; suggest an education and career in the art field; generate new thoughts on the beauty of life. 

MEANS OF EDUCATING THE GENERAL PUBLIC

There is a lack of art education in schools. However, art exhibits broaden our knowledge about people, cultures and the world. They democratically teach art, geography and philosophy to the public.

The sense of beauty can be sharpened and progressively refined. Visiting art exhibits is one of the best exercises in order to educate this faculty, and to learn how to appreciate “a thing of beauty” whenever and wherever we happen to meet it.

Exhibits are a great place to sparkle an interest in art and lifelong learning begins at a young age.

COMMUNITY TIES

Due to the growth and proliferation of online networking, virtual galleries and exhibits are leaving the traditional galleries and exhibits in difficulty to remain relevant. In this we see that advanced technology is removing something precious from the art world: community!

Art Exhibits enable communities to come together, to interact with each other 

in discussion, to make friends, to foster an important art ecosystem with germination, symbiosis, osmosis, synergy and pollination.Also, there is nothing like being among art lovers; you may be surprised at what you see, who you meet and what you learn.

JUST PLAIN FUN

Trying to interpret art by yourself and with others can create much enjoyment. 

People thirst for fun, beauty, poetry and new experiences. Some enthusiasts may drive from all over the city just to see an art exhibit.

The artists’ intentions can be illuminated by writings of outstanding critics. Reading about art can widen our knowledge and, by illuminating certain aspects of it, add another dimension to our enjoyment.

BENEFITS TO CHILDREN

There is plenty of research indicating the benefits of the unique exposure to art exhibits and museums to children.

• Children see, inquire and explore new things. Their eyes are opened to different ideas and perspectives.
• Children get memorable immersive learning experiences.
• Children have their imaginations provoked.
• Children are introduced to an unknown environment and subject matter.
• Children are offered unique and new environments for quality time with family and/or friends.
• Children get the foundation for creativity, critical thinking and connection to the world around them.
• Children and parents spend time together as a family, sharing conversations and free-flowing dialogue that often gets missed in the day-to-day life. Art is a way to communicate, explore and learn from each other.

TOLERANCE

At art exhibits, our minds fly far away and gain a better understanding of another’s ideas, beliefs, values, opinions, tastes, preferences and community ties. Exhibits invoke thoughts and conversations about standards of beauty and cultures.

“Tastes differ.” Works can demonstrate part of the remarkable diversity of styles and approaches characteristic of the modern and post-modern achievement in painting.

Art transcends culture and language barriers.

SEE NEW ART NOW.

If you have not discovered art… it is time you did.

You can get acquainted during the visit with innovative art work that may become famous one day or may never again come within the range of public vision, once they become private property.

Art work may lead to new discoveries and make a lasting impression. There may be imaginative exploration and free artistic invention from inner experience.

CREATIVITY.

Nothing boosts your own creativity more than visiting art exhibits. Maybe it feels like osmosis, but being around art and in the company of creative people makes YOU more creative. Art inspires us to pursue our own creative release.

An art exhibit may be a transitional point in some lives, and a positive force on our neighbourhood’s culture, inspiring creativity. It ignites your creativity, imagination and innovative thinking.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Once you open yourself to art, you will allow this entire world of creativity to literally transform you as a human being, reconnecting you to yourself, the environment and greater values, thoughts and wisdom. art exhibits are a pathway back to wholeness and means of improving the minds of the general public.

Art has a unique capacity of connecting us to past, present and future. Art teaches us that we are something larger than ourselves – organic and inorganic, vegetable and mineral, animal and human, imaginary and real, geometric and biomorphic, natural and synthetic.

Indeed, art teaches us that we are something larger than ourselves – abstract and objective, concealed and revealed, possible and impossible, logical and illogical, realistic and fantastic, countable and uncountable, national and international, terrestrial and cosmic, local and universal.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Whether you are aware of it or not, art has a significant impact on local and provincial economies and it shapes the very fabric of our society.

In North America, there is a surge in art appreciation and art exhibits’ attendance is growing exponentially. Within ten years, Toronto will really be recognized as an art capital like New York, Paris or London. Currently we are not there but Toronto is becoming a very important city from the perspective of international art.

Let’s hope that art exhibits will not disappear but may be with us a long time.

LIVING CULTURE

An art exhibit is a special place, particularly given the disappearance of regular reporting on visual arts in Canada’s national newspapers and broadcasters. Lively and intelligent conversation about culture in this country should be supported.

In an age where visual arts and cultural coverage is disappearing, an art exhibit matters now more than ever before. A conversation about art and culture should be kept alive in our city. Art is and has been one of the important human activities which has impacted positively to human happiness.

In short, art exhibits can have a huge impact. Art exhibits provide a space for reflection, meditation, inspiration, enlightenment, renewal, excitement, amazement, creativity, enjoyment, entertainment, interpretation and allow for learning experiences that may last a lifetime.

Cris de Souza is an artist who also enjoys taking classes in the University in the Community programme. As we look from his perspective at the role art plays in enriching our lives, it serves as a reminder how wonderful it is to open oneself up to new ideas, to discovering a new way of looking at things. Art, like literature, poetry and music, makes us think, and elevates us above everyday life. It reconnects us with what it means to be human. Cris’s passion for art inspires passion in others. Take a look at his reasons for loving art and the importance of art exhibitions to recharge your own passion for the enjoyment of art.

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