The Artist's Road Painting the World's Beautiful Places

Arts and Culture
Perspectives from The Artist’s Road

Future - study      1918      Giacomo Balla (PD US)

   Although we are surrounded by a community of arts-appreciating friends and family, the thought has occasionally occurred to us that we might be living in the wrong country. Our workshops in Provence and Tuscany may give us glimpses into only the most idyllic side of life in France and Italy, but they have also given us an understanding of the strong history of arts and culture revered and celebrated there

   With the sometimes unimaginable magnitude and quantity of profound issues facing our country, it can be easy to minimize the “arts-and-culture stuff”. But, as the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Maria Rosario Jackson, writes, “Our art, culture and creativity are some of our country’s most valuable resources. They are evidence of our humanity, our ability to learn from our examined experience and our ability to imagine and innovate.”

   The N.E.A. has often been depicted as an unnecessary institution sponsoring arts programming primarily used by a small segment of elite society. We are encouraged by Jackson’s belief that the arts are integral to all communities and that for a culture to thrive, its inhabitants must be able to lead, what she calls, “vidas artísticas”—artful lives. She is finding ways to integrate art into diverse policy areas—the public health department, the transportation department, veterans affairs and more.

   By embodying the arts in our daily lives, we are building a cultural legacy that will help to define us for future generations—a legacy that can be revered and celebrated. To create that better future, we must first be able to imagine it. Imagination requires that we cultivate and support creative thinking in our education systems and then provide opportunities to integrate art and creativity into all our lives.