I often wonder if it makes any real sense to talk breezily about “the arts” as if what makes them greater than the sum of their parts is self-evident. Is there some unifying element that connects all the arts? It’s a worthwhile question, especially if you’re trying to encourage people to support the arts in general, instead of just their own favorite variant of them.
It’s a difficult topic, especially when there’s so much cultural variety abroad in the land these days. And when very few people are willing to give the word “art” to something artistic they’re not really fond of.
For artists themselves, the question is much easier to answer: It’s the creative aspect that does it. The arts in every form are an exercise in and an expression of human creativity, whether in dance or poetry or painting or music. Artists themselves tend to understand this intuitively. But less so, I think, does the public. Most audiences don’t take part in or directly perceive that unifying element of creativity so it’s harder to appreciate. But it’s there. If you see art this way, you can see it as something that brings disparate things together, rather than see it as something separates and segregates by creating multiple and often artificial boundaries and rankings.
Art is the result when human creativity translates something timeless into something tangible. It’s that element of being in the presence of the timeless—of something that pulls us out of our own moment and insists on shaping us to it—that forms the common element that’s present in our interaction with art of any sort.
English poet Matthew Arnold was not above putting into words an occasional saccharine sentiment. He was the one who, in 1875, described art and culture as “the best which has been thought and said in the world.” That’s not bad. But art isn’t limited to just that. All art isn’t “great” art and that’s perfectly ok. Most music that you go hear isn’t great art. Most paintings that you see in a local art show aren’t great art. But “favorite art” can still be art. Your child’s drawing of a flower or a dog or a house isn’t necessarily great art, but it’s still art. Your friend who sits down and improvises at the piano may not be Thelonious Monk, but that doesn’t mean what you’re hearing isn’t art.
That potential that something creative has to reach you and touch you, is what gives unity to “the arts.” And it’s why the arts, as a whole, deserve a community’s support. I think if you try to use the word “art” to elevate some expressions and tear down others, you’re sort of missing the point.