5 Purposes of Art: To Which Are You Being Called?
As a college and career coach for music, theatre, and dance students, I help young artists discover their place in the professional performing arts ecosystem. The coaching process is grounded in the uncovering of personal values, preferences, and strengths that guide the artist as they envision and prepare for their future career.
After working with several models and activities to help clients articulate their preferences based on types of thinking, types of working, types of skills, types of environments, types of etc., I determined that there are also different types of artists.
Our understanding of these artist “types” can be shaped around what happens when an artist creates - in other words, what their art does.
five major acts/purposes of Art
1. Art Evokes.
This is probably the first thing you think of when you think about the consequences of art. Art evokes feelings, emotions, inspiration. This is why we use art in ceremonies, create art to express ourselves, and take in art when we are looking to be inspired. This may seem like no big deal, but it actually has a pretty profound impact on our lives. Study after study is showing that our emotional health can have a huge impact on our physical health, so anything that can help us better understand and direct our emotional lives - like ART - can help us to be healthier and live longer. The stories we tell through the arts are also embodiments of the cultural myths that shape the way we see ourselves and the rest of the world.
2. Art Connects.
Anytime we create art, we are actually making connections between the different artistic elements we are manipulating - color, pitch, rhythm, texture, etc. However, in the case of some art, making bigger connections - connections between cultures, connections between ideas, connections between individuals - seems to be central to its purpose. Think of line dancing, drum circles, community murals, and playback theatre. When art connects, something new is created other than the work of art. It might be new understanding, a new relationship, or a new sense of community. But if you asked the artist who creates this type of art what she intended in creating it, chances are that making new connections was somewhere in the back of her mind, if not an explicit purpose.
3. Art Destroys.
This could come across as a bit intense or negative, but it doesn’t take much to come up with things in the world that need to be destroyed - oppression, hate, corruption, bigotry, etc. All of these things are rooted in unhealthy thought patterns and paradigms, and art can help destroy those paradigms by revealing them for what they truly are. When old things are destroyed, they make way for new life. Think forest fires, volcanoes, and cleaning out the fridge. It takes a special artist to do this well, but these creator-destroyers are crucial to the ongoing development of our society.
4. Art Liberates.
The poetry of Langston Hughes. The music of Dimitri Shostakovich. The oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr. These are all examples of artists practicing their craft in the face of oppression in order to bring empowerment and freedom to those who behold their work. The liberation that results is both individual and societal. Art can also liberate pent-up emotion or stifled ideas, and anytime art yields a sense of empowerment through liberation - in either the creator or the beholder - the artist serves to elevate the human condition.
5. Art Prophesies.
It’s not too absurd to assert that artists have an uncanny ability to tap into intuitive and visionary abilities. However, in the case of some works of art, the vision expressed is so powerfully stated that it seems to carry a prophetic message. The songs of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon come to mind. It’s important to remember that the archetypal prophet is typically shunned by the societal establishment. I am reminded of the striking cover image of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” - the aerial view of a hurricane spewing out of the smokestack of a factory - created over a decade before global climate change became a widely accepted topic for public concern. The prophetic artist has a tough row to hoe, but he is driven by an urgency to speak truthfully about his vision.
Of course, this is not an authoritative or exhaustive list, but I think it gives us a framework for understanding the underlying mission(s) behind our creative processes. Understanding this can benefit us as we seek to build our careers as performing art professionals, and I’ll touch on that more in a moment.
Before I do, I want to address one other thing art does that you might feel is missing from the list:
Art sells.
Yes, there are loads of persuasive and commercial applications to the arts. Some purists will tell you that music or literature written just to make a buck isn’t really art (in some cases - but not all - I might agree with them). Others will say that’s just the road you take to become a professional. I tend to fall somewhere in between. If you think you struggle with ‘sell-out syndrome’, just ask yourself two questions:
Does the art you create bring value to other people’s lives?; and
Is the art you are selling in alignment with your personal values?
If you can answer “yes” to both of these questions, you can feel great about being compensated for the work you do. If you cannot say yes, then you have some emotional digging to do to find out why you can’t.
SO, WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
I believe knowing why we are compelled to create and perform can help us design and build a better career. Of course, most works of art serve a combination of these purposes. For instance, all art evokes. However, for some works, evocation is the primary objective while others use evocation as a vehicle to get to some other purpose.
As you read the five purposes above, you probably felt two or three resonate with you more than the others. For me it was easy to write about how art connects, because that is the direction in which most of my creating is aimed.
If you can figure out which of these purposes you are most compelled by, it can have all sorts of implications for your career: who to study with, where to study, what to study, who to seek out as a mentor, what internships to pursue, etc.
If you feel skeptical or unsure of this, that's fine. Maybe you don’t want to classify the motives behind your work. Don’t.
But if you’re not sure if you actually do have an underlying drive to your work, or because your artistic endeavors seem to meander - don’t worry! In many cases, it takes some time and exploration to settle into a niche. One way or the other, you can consider this an invitation to reflect on why you do what you do. Self-knowledge eventually becomes self-mastery, which is nothing if not empowering.