The arts—music, film, drama, painting, dance, literature, web design, etc.—all can be healthy and exciting. They can add passion and zest to life. Artistic pleasures are important for happiness, and they may provide the stimulus need for personal growth. They reveal our sense of life.
Like many things, more isn't necessarily better. So :enjoyment of the arts does not depend on quantity. In fact, too much can be a diversion from being creative in other ways, or a desire to escape from reality. The desire for escapist entertainment shows a poor sense of life, unless we happen to be a performer or a professional critic. Home theater and the Internet makes it less necessary to make many trips to a venue, and to be a lover of the arts and entertainment at home. By being more selective, the arts and entertainment can be among the most moving and memorable experiences we can have.
A life-long habit of getting out to the theater, cinema, concerts, or social events can make us healthier. Attending cultural events, reading books on history and science, listening to or making music, and a quality social network can increase quality life spans by causing beneficial changes in the nervous system. And artistic pleasures appear to enhance immune function. They also lead to a sense of belonging, which, in itself, can be an important ingredient in health.
Many people believe that a person's response to music, literature, fine arts, performing arts, and so on, is supernatural; in fact, the opposite is the case. A positive response to art is a real event, which can reflect a person's deepest values. Those values can be objective or negative. andsome people respond positively to neurotic or destructive art.
The belief that art is entirely subjective and cannot be evaluated on an objective basis is false. With sufficient knowledge, it can be judged by precise and objective standards. Such appraisal can include sense of life, theme, execution, style, and presentation.
One myth says that most great artists, composers, painters, sculptors, and writers lived in poverty, and were not appreciated during their lifetimes. This is an excuse for pseudo, amateur, or government sponsored artists, people who never put forth the learning and training needed to produce works of art salable in free markets. And with few exceptions, most universally enduring artists throughout history were fully recognized during their lifetimes, sometimes early in their careers.
Another myth is that if a person dislikes a work of art, then the person does not really understand it. But if a person does not like a work of art, the work is often poorly executed, or goes against that person's core values.
