Art has the power to evoke emotions and spark meaningful conversations about society, culture, and humanity. Being in the presence of actors, musicians, and artists can create a unique emotional impact, allowing viewers to connect with complex themes and ideas. By engaging with art, listeners can gain a deeper understanding of the world around them and the issues that shape it.
What’s Up on Broadway?
I’m in New York City this month and had the opportunity to see An Enemy of the People at the Circle in the Square theater. It’s based on the play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Jeremy Strong plays Dr. Thomas Stockmann, a widower who discovers that the town’s water supply is contaminated, which necessitates shutting down the town baths. Michael Imperioli plays Peter Stockmann, the town’s mayor (and Dr. Thomas Stockmann’s brother), who is adamantly against shutting down the baths, as they are the main source of employment and income in the town. In a discourse that weighs preventing a health epidemic versus preventing economic demise, the play explores issues of politics, power, and people.
Both Strong and Imperioli are strong actors. Victoria Pedretti, playing Petra Stockmann was alive with emotions, visibly crying at the end of the drama. The real standout was Caleb Eberhardt. His Hovstad character came to life as the journalist, would-be boyfriend to Petra, and moral voice of the town. His vocal struggle to understand the situation and characterize the best-yet-polar choice for the most good was the compass of the story. It wasn’t just what he said (scripted dialog) but the way he showed us (performance art) his conflict with the situation that was enlightening. His struggle to do the right thing and support the right side was palpable. I was in his shoes as he switched sides. I felt uneasy about his decisions as if he was my friend. His mannerisms invited me into the story and his conflict was my conflict.
You Had to Be There
Seeing the show live was a tremendous experience. And it was extra fantastic to be in a small theater-in-the-round because you're so close to the actors. You can see all of their facial expressions and catch the little twitches in their body movements that you can't see from farther away or on screen. You just got the sense of the sheer concentration that they had for being in the present moment. I smelled the candles being lit. I felt the chill of the ice buckets being thrown. I heard the echoes of the voices trailing off as they ran offstage.
There’s a power in art that you get from experiencing it in person. I find it vitally important to go to live events, see art and hear music in person, and to stop to take in sculptures in the park.
Have a Personal Encounter
I urge you to stand on a street corner and look at the architecture of the buildings around you, the true landscape of your city and neighborhood- the sidewalks and trees, the paths and the gardens. Look at how the neighborhoods are laid out. Check out the design elements (or lack thereof) and know that someone planned this habitation (or should have planned it better) to be an essential part of your life.
Art is Connection
You can really feel it when art (or design or music) is done well. Art forms have a structure, a balance, and a message. They play with our emotions as we put together the messages of our surroundings. The psychology of aesthetics truly affects our mindset. That’s why art is a powerful communication tool- it helps explain our world to us and it helps us express our human experience.
When you truly study all of these elements, then you can come to understand art more fully. Art, like acting and music and fashion, should make you feel alive. It should make you feel all the emotions. It's okay for it to make you feel tense or edgy or awkward. You can feel anger and disgust just as much as you can feel sentiments of calmness and joy and wonder. You can feel seen. Or you can feel misunderstood. If art makes you feel anything at all, then it’s “good” art.
These evoked emotions are exactly what an artist is trying to accomplish. Art is the best place to express (or observe) our sentiments about our world. There is powerful and effective art about political situations, historical happenings, geopolitics, religion, relationships, and society.
Art Fills in the Gaps
We don’t often have the right words to say what we think. Sometimes our language isn’t complete enough or our thoughts aren’t fully formed. Mostly we might just be working something out in our heads still while we try to grapple with an ongoing situation. Sometimes we’re shocked or under informed or curious to know more. When we don’t have the words, art helps us identify our feelings and tell our stories. Art explains science, history, and global events. Art expresses visually (paintings, acting, etc.), aurally (music, spoken word, etc.), olfactorily and gustatorily (food, wine, etc.), or tactually (fabric, fashion, etc.) what we cannot develop in sentence structure. Art handles all the awkward moments, all the emotional complexities, all the unconnected brain pathways, so that we can point to the art and say “THAT! THAT is what I was talking about. THAT is how I feel. THAT is NOT how I feel. THAT is exactly what I needed to see/hear/taste to be able to close my eyes and fist-pump and look at you and eyeball you and nod heartily so that you would know that THAT is what I meant.”
The society that we live in, with all of its wrongs, and all of its rights, and all of its beauty, and what we love about it, and what we dislike about it, can be expressed through art. And it’s more powerful to see it in person. To sit right there with the actors and see their sweat. To stand on the street with the musicians and feel the vibrations. So that together we can come to understand the true meaning of what it means to be a community and to live in a society where people interact with each other with different values and different viewpoints, and different cultural backgrounds.
Your Art (or Interaction With It) is Uniquely Powerful
Because we understand this world differently, we need different forms of art. And we need you to do your art. Whatever your expression is- music or writing or poetry- please share it with the world. Post it on social media. Do it in public. Tell it to your friends. Teach it to your kids. Be brave. Art is communication.
And also go see live art. Be there with it in person to see the expressions of other artists and other audience members. Remember that there is no right way to interpret art. What an artist does is put their work and their emotions out there. It’s their philosophy for you to interact with. They are sharing their talents. And it's there for you to receive and interpret in communication with the artist so that you can have this energetic conversation with the world about some subject, and come to understand or not understand it more fully, but have more questions about it, and then dive deeper into it and probe and try to get an understanding and a mutual authentication to say what it is to be a human.
So when in the theater, watch the actors study how the set designer has placed objects on the stage. Go to the cinema and see how the arrangement of music and the artistry of the makeup brings the character of light to life. Listen to how stories are told and how themes are explored. This is how we fit more comfortably into our world.