The importance of Art seems to never be fully accepted or recognized and is so frequently rewarded with dismissal and disdain.  However if you look back into history sometimes only art is a living record of a society or even more frequent a reflection of an entirely different mindset for a culture that still exists today.

Once thought of as just an elaborate commission for kings, the Maya culture infused art with its history.   Every plate to pillar donning the artistic language had artists’s own creative and precise account for their current events or importance.  Artist and scholars were one in the same. At first this may seem an odd concept to have art as such an integral part of society until you look around at your own current environment.  If you take the idea of “Kings” and skew it to look at the equivalents of rulers or leaders in a civilization you might start seeing where the power lies in your own society.  Sure there is a government which maintains some semblance of order but they are not nearly as active in our daily lives as commerce and religion have become.  We are surrounded by art that we now recognize as marketing.  Marketing pushes and pulls at the masses to support media, religious, business and political icons.  It also reflects what is going on in the world today and in some cases may even be a better translation of how a society is viewed by both insiders and out.  Leaders in our society may emerge from different avenues but they often share the same face frowning upon or at the very least dismissing the very art that has kept them in power.

We might marvel at computers and other modern technologies but what of the power of music?  It is in every known culture around the world.  It can be a part of a battle march or a simple tune for a child to recite.  It can be complicatedly composed yet so easy to listen to.  It can speak better than words for a moment of a cinematic silence or also be recognized for rituals within society— birthdays, weddings, graduations and more.  It can be the soundtrack you play as you escape for a long road trip or the background for a quiet moment of reflection.  It can move you to laugh, cry, dance and feel raw emotions from the simplest rhythmic conjunction of sustained sounds.  Have you ever whistled to a bird that whistled back?  If such a simple form of communication with another species though music is not enough to signify a need for further exploration what is?  Why then are the arts under the heel of every educational budget, under the bottom line for every institution which had embraced them in the beginning with open arms and smiling faces?  If the Arts are such a vital part of each of us, why then is it still categorized as a luxury first to be abandoned at the any sign of hardship?  

Perspective of appreciation is our only alternative.  As a society we must choose to engage the arts with more priority in mind.  Recognize those who create art with at the very least some support and praise.  We can no longer allow our leaders to be the only ones who chose the few who will be rewarded for their expression.  As individuals we are limited in the support we can offer but together through the unity of a common goal we can achieve more than any government, religion or franchise.  The choice as it has always been, remains in each one of us.

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