why does art matter?

Why are we so drawn to art—to music, films, books, stories? The beauty of art gestures beyond itself, to something greater. But what is it, exactly, that we’re searching for?

A RENEWED APPRECIATION

As a result of this pandemic, there have been many general themes emerging in the world—life lessons that we’re learning together, all at once. One theme that has caught my attention, especially, is the renewed appreciation for the arts.

As we’ve begun reprioritizing health, happiness, and family over work life, we’re realizing how essential the arts are to our happiness and self-expression. Films, books, and music are more than just “escapism”—good art resonates with us, shares essential truths about life, and helps us connect with each other on a deeper level.

To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from Dead Poets Society (1989): work is essential to sustain life, but the arts give us a reason to live.

But why does art matter so much to us? Why is it so important?

LONELINESS OF THE SOUL

Every person has an ocean within them. On the surface, there’s the conscious things about a person that anyone can find out: what we like/dislike, how we spend our time, who we spend our time with, the funny stories we tell our friends, our favorite songs, defining experiences in life, and so on.

On a deeper level, every person has unconscious things that are more difficult to articulate to others: faith, personal values, past traumas, experiences that shaped us, meaningful memories that can’t be translated, things we don’t say out loud. We all have beliefs, struggles, doubts, hopes, dreams—all of these things shape our perception of the world.

Everyone wants to be understood, affirmed, and loved. Isn’t that all we want, really?

When we don’t understand our own depths, and when other people don’t resonate with those parts of ourselves, it leads to loneliness. We are lonely when we do not feel understood and accepted.

CULTURAL LANGUAGE

There’s a lyric I love in a song by The 1975 that talks about how “Cultural language is an operating system: a simple interface rendered feeble and listless when tested with divinity or a true understanding of the human condition.”

In other words, modern day-to-day language doesn’t provide space for us to share essential truths (about spirituality or human nature, for example).

Think about it—in ordinary conversation, how can you express to your family that you’re afraid of growing older? How do you tell your friends you’re lonely? Some things we just can’t say out loud.

And yet, where common language fails us, the “higher language” of art plays a pivotal role in forging deep connection.

ART AS LANGUAGE

Music, paintings, stories, poetry, films, theatre…all of these things convey a feeling that we can’t express ourselves. That’s why certain melodies or lyrics are our favorite ones to listen to on repeat. That’s why certain books, worn paperbacks with dog-eared pages and notes in the margins, remain on our shelves for decades. It’s why, when encountering a powerful quote, you put your finger to the page and say, “That’s it! Somebody put it in words!” Someone out there “gets it.”

Art speaks to something deep within us, something we failed to articulate to ourselves, something we couldn’t express to others until now.

All art is a language through which we convey meaning.

ART AS CONNECTION

Through art, especially movies and books, we are transported out of our life and find ourselves in other people’s stories.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” writes George R.R. Martin, “The man who never reads lives only one.”

Art consoles us, reminds us that we’re not alone. In whatever form, art pushes beyond the barriers of face-to-face conversation and speaks straight to the heart of us.

One of the best feelings in the world is finding that someone likes the same music or books as you do—the thing you share forges an immediate, lasting connection between you.

THE SECRET STRAND

How is it, though, that a song that means everything to you could mean nothing to me? Art speaks to each person in different ways.

Consider this quote from C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain:

“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that….All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it—tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest—if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself—you would know it…..We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul.”

To put it another way: there is, in every person, a secret strand connecting all the things we love. All our favorite pieces of art, landscapes, friendships, and thoughts resonate deeply with us. We understand and recognize those things when we encounter them, but we can rarely tell others about it. We can’t usually find the words.

I wrote a whole post on C.S. Lewis’s theory of “joy,” or the inconsolable longing for something we can’t explain. The sense that something is missing in our lives, though we’re not sure what it is. In that post, I dive deeper about why this “secret thread” exists in each of us.

The most important point here: the meaning is not in the words or the melody, it’s in the person. Art simply helps us convey the meaning.

THE MEANING

Why does art matter so much? Because art helps us understand the world—both our own souls and the souls of others—in a deep and lasting way.

We turn to art to understand ourselves.

Through art, we can pinpoint feelings and ideas that we can’t usually express for ourselves. Deep down in our souls, we know that we’re understood by someone out there—and maybe even that we understand ourselves.

We turn to art to understand others.

Art, in whatever form, helps us connect to other people on a soul-to-soul level. Literature and poetry, especially, help people articulate truths that are difficult to convey out loud. When we share a piece of art, we uncover a lot more about each other. We can start conversations about things that matter deeply to us.

“Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.”

—Brené Brown