Art for Peace

Can art make a peaceful difference in our world? This site thinks so. Given the creation of art itself is typically a peaceful process, wouldn't it make sense it could create more peace.

What if all the soldiers in the world turned into artists? Utopian, I know, but what if?

What if all the children in the countries at war, exchanged art projects, even simple drawings, sketches, or coloring? Would that foster peace in the next generation?

What if all the homeless (and refugees) drew pictures on tiles or colored them. Then they were used to coat our public buildings, fences, walls, walkways, etc...? Would it not help them contribute to society and get used to investing in society? Bellevue WA has used tiles on fences around subdivisions and apartment complexes, that from the street look like a striking use of art for public good. I can imagine if a person has their own tile up on public display the sense of pride it would instill. Don't we need more of this in the world?

What if all the art produced in schools, ended up on permanent public display in some way, inside a public building or outside on a public byway (foot or vehicular)? Would it hurt to save the art of multiple generations and make permanent public landmarks from it? Are the only worthy artists of permanent public display the Da Vinci's or Michelangelo's of the world? I think not.

What if each one of our homes was an art gallery? Imagine each piece of furniture, each home appliance, or any displayed piece of stuff, instead of being a mass produced, mass marketed, lowest cost, yet decidedly non-unique item in our environment was uniquely created by ourselves, a local artisan, or anyone of modest artistic talent? We would be putting our dollars back into our local community, would that be so bad?

What if we could pick the patterns we had in our home, not from Wallmart's limited selection, but from a worldwide select of patterns, colors and textures? Once we picked them, a local person would turn it into reality so more of our dollars stay in our own community.

What if we could learn about other cultures through the exchange of art, and it wasn't just an occasional display at a local art museum, but integrated into our lives on a daily/hourly basis? A constant learning process, an enhanced understanding of who the people we say are evil, or who we are bombing really are as people?

What if those who might bomb us, had expressions of our peaceful nature integrated into their lives, would they be so eager to bomb us?

Would art exchange lead to a better understanding between diverse cultures and political views? Would this improve the world?

The neysayers might complain about art being of little real world help, so why put so much effort, why not just write a book or make a documentary? Something that can be copied over and over for less money? Because it is one point of view I would counter. How many people actually see the documentaries or read the books? We are all inundated with movies and books about less important topics. Where is the real world value in that? People find value in understanding our world, and connecting with others, that is why we have sister cities in foreign countries. For cultural exchange. What about allowing everyone with an interest to play the role of artist and contribute to cultural exchange?

What if you could write to an artist that created a particular piece you liked and ask them for the reasons behind the piece and the meaning that it holds for them? Would that not be of interest and of value, connecting people across the world? Like penpals from the old days?

What if lawmakers received public expressions of interest and values through art? If nothing else C-Span would be more lively as that art was displayed as part of the congressional record. Send your congressional representative your expressions today.

What if we got to know people from around the world, and stayed in tune with their artistic expression, would we know more or less about their moods and their lives through their art?

I will part with this last thought. Art is some of the most expensive stuff society has ever collected. Masters might be rare, and therefore one of their limited pieces can be worthy of the lifetimes salary of a common person. Artists used to be rare in days that people had to really work a long day's hard labor to feed their family. Could there be time in the average American's day, which includes 4 hours of TV per day, to create art? If it promoted world peace by sharing cultural values across political and economic borders would it be worth it?