So What Is the Point?

"So miss, what is the point?" As an art teacher I hear this unfortunate question repeatedly throughout the year from students that don't like, or value art. It makes me very sad and on some levels rabidly angry. Angry that the system pays lip service to the arts but doesn't value it enough to endorse it, stress the importance of it, the need for it in any meaningful way. Angry that children are not exposed to art and the creative process.
To steal a quote from Dead Poets Society: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."
We are members of the human race. Beauty, artistic expression are all part of the same list above. Creative expression is something to live for something to stay alive for. Art is a way of leaving your mark on the world. There is precious little we can leave behind us for others. The sharing of ideas, passion, expression of beauty, even sadness through art is a meaningful contribution to those we love and the greater world at large.
"So miss, what is the point?" In this world of billions of people, and the billions that have come and gone and those yet to be born, you are the only one of you the universe will ever give us. There will never be another you. Show us who you are. Create something, leave your mark.

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