Reasons to sponsor artists

Artists don’t make art in order to make money.

Artists make art because they love to or feel a deep desire to which can’t be ignored. And then in order to support themselves, they need to sell their work.

Of course there are some artists who give art a bad name by charging exhorbitant prices: and don’t get me started on the whole art/gallery scene.
But even in the millions being given for art at high-end art auctions these days, there is a hidden truth that in its essence,  art is priceless.

So why is art important?  Why should you consider sponsoring art and artists?

1.  Because art and culture are essential parts of being human. Without them we would have no inner life.
   When Winston Churchill, was asked to scrap art grants during WW2, he said in effect, ‘ A society without the arts would not be worth winning the war for’.
2. The arts can initiate dialogue and create an environment for healing through communication
   (J. Smiers)
3. Our society is dominated by left-brained principles such as logic, science, intellect. The arts are the repositories for myth, symbolic language, intuition, emotion, stories, magic, chaos, and many right-brained functions we need to live whole human lives.
4. Artist visionaries provide commentary in the present society and first imagine, then bring into form new possibilities: for example, notice the entrance of spirituality into mainstream films.
5. Artists keep alive the imagination. For example,  in a society starved for stories, enter a writer such as J. Rowling with Harry Potter, and filmmaker Peter Jackson with the Lord of The Rings movies.
6. J.Smiers again (see previous post), Artists creating works of art with integrity are, ‘….our lines of defense against sloppy and dangerous exploitation of language, cruel misuse of images, and sad degradation of musicality into aural wallpaper’.
7. (ibid) ‘The arts are where in every culture deeply felt sentiments of joy, sadness, violence, beauty and crucial feelings about human life and relations between people are stored….’They are also decisive battlegrounds on many issues’.
8. And why should we as individuals take it upons ourselves to support artists? Because artist are in a tenuous position in society, their work is exploited and underpaid and unprotected, there is no financial or social infrastructure to support them, and everywhere grants  are being cut. 

  These are only a few points out of an entire body of information and thought on the subject.

One more point for consideration. And if you are reading this, I don’t think that this is directed to you because you are obviously considering some questions about life and the meaning of life. But a lot of people will say, ‘I don’t have the money for art, it is an unnecessary luxury’.

Replying to them I say, um, let’s see. How about your newest cell phone? And the box of new clothes you just brought to the Goodwill because they were no longer in fashion?  What about the redecoration of the living room, the new kitchen, the fancy bike for the 4 year old, the new toys the new porch furniture, the new barbecue because the one from two years ago didn’t have the ‘time save grill’ function. The stuff for the garden, the new this the new that.

Are these needed? How much does an average family in the Netherlands, for example, spend on party goods, fireworks, and most recently orange clothing and accessories for the football games. Quite simply billions.

An art work that connects with something inside of you becomes part of your home and life permanently. It gets passed from generation to generation, often increasing in both financial and subjective worth as it collects stories through time.

The choice is up to each one of us.