I recently read of a survey that showed that 96% of Americans greatly value art and are inspired by it.  Most parents believe teaching the arts is just as important as teaching mathematics, science, English, history, and the like.  95% believe art is essential in preparing children for their futures. Despite all of this, a shockingly low 27% of the same survey takers believe that artists, those who created the art, contribute “a lot” to the good of society.

As a writer, poet, doodler, singer, painter, photographer, and pianist, this directly degrades me and my fellow artists. To think that my stories, poems, drawings, songs, paintings, photographs, and music would be appreciated by the majority of society is enough of an honor. I’m not creating art to simply get the credit of doing so, only to give more inspiration for non-artists. To do so, I need recognition.

Think of Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent Van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach, Emily Dickinson, Franz Kafka, or Henry David Thoreau.  These people were artists that were unknown to the masses until after their death. They experienced posthumous fame, although they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. They lived their lives, created their art, and weren’t appreciated by the society they lived in. Nowadays, their art lives on eternally (Bach lived more than 300 years ago) as the subjects that the aforementioned parents probably want their children to be educated about.

The book A Whole New Mind – Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink outlines the need of right brained individuals in today’s economy and how without them and their creative brains, competition is wiped out in a capitalistic society when innovation is rare.

If the work of artists is so appreciated by the business world for its creativity and individuals for their inspiration and value, the 73% of Americans who believe that artists do not contribute to the good of society must not forget that without artists, there is no art.

Photo Credit: Original Painting by Fabie De Silva - www.FabieDeSilva.com