“The Arts” for Thursday Art Day.

For Thursday Art Day I thought it would be nice to share some thought provoking quotes to have you pondering “The Arts” and what the creative discipline entails.

All of us when we see the grace of dance, admire a design, become amazed at digital media, sob our way through a film, sing alone with music, or sit spellbound at the theatre can forget all these things we enjoy are a part of a whole called “The Arts”. We all marvel at the beauty of nature but so much of what I have mentioned often takes inspiration from the natural world. It is in the rendering of material things that spiritualism shows itself so clearly.

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics.

Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters, musicians; it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality. Those who have the gift of creative expression in unusually large measure disclose the meaning of the individuality of others to those others. In participating in the work of art, they become artists in their activity. They learn to know and honour individuality in whatever form it appears. The fountains of creative activity are discovered and released. The free individuality which is the source of art is also the final source of creative development in time.
John Dewey, Time and Individuality (1940)

His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland;
Still born to improve us in every part,
His pencil our faces, his manners our heart.
Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation (1774), line 139. In Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 43-45

Any great work of art … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world — the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.
Leonard Bernstein, “What Makes Opera Grand?” Vogue (December 1958)

Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.
George Bernard Shaw, in Back to Methuselah (1921), The She-Ancient, in Pt. V

As all Nature’s thousand changes
But one changeless God proclaim;
So in Art’s wide kingdom ranges
One sole meaning still the same:
This is Truth, eternal Reason,
Which from Beauty takes its dress,
And serene through time and season
Stands for aye in loveliness.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, Chapter XIV (Chapter III, 128 of Carlyle’s Ed). In Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 43-45

There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.
Isaac D’Israeli, Literary Character, Chapter XI In Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 43-45

All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality. Joseph Conrad, in Henry James — An Appreciation (1905)

THE ARTS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia http://en.wikipedia.org

This article is about Arts as a group of creative disciplines. For the philosophical concept of art, see Art. For the study of arts, see Liberal arts. For other uses, see Art (disambiguation).
The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many endeavours (or art forms) united by their employment of the human creative impulse. The term implies a broader range of disciplines than “art”, which in modern usage usually refers only to the visual arts. The other major constituents of the arts are the literary arts, more often called literature – including poetry, novels and short stories, among others – and the performing arts, among them music, dance, magic, theatre and film. Literary arts and creative writing are interchangeable terms. These divisions are by no means absolute as there are art forms which combine a visual element with performance (e.g. film) and the written word (e.g. comics). This list is by no means comprehensive, but only meant to introduce the concept of the arts.

Whether or not a form of creative endeavour can be considered one of “the arts” can be contentious due to the cultural values attached in Western culture to the term “art”, which can imply that it is a field elevated above popular culture.

Collins English Dictionary defines ‘the arts’ as “imaginative, creative, and non-scientific branches of knowledge considered collectively, esp. as studied academically”. The singular term art is defined by the Irish Art Encyclopaedia as follows: “Art is created when an artist creates a beautiful object, or produces a stimulating experience that is considered by his audience to have artistic merit.” So, one could conclude that art is the process that leads to a product(the artwork or piece of art), which is then examined and analysed by experts or simply enjoyed by those who appreciate it. The same source states:

Art is a global activity which encompasses a host of disciplines, as evidenced by the range of words and phrases which have been invented to describe its various forms. Examples of such phraseology include: Fine Arts,Liberal Arts, Visual Arts, Decorative Arts, Applied Arts, Design, Crafts, Performing Arts, and so on.

The term art commonly refers to the “Visual Arts”, as an abbreviation of creative art or fine art. For example, the history of art is described as “the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and the literature. It is also one of the humanities. The term sometimes encompasses theory of the visual arts, including aesthetics.” In the article for fine art, we read:

Confusion often occurs when people mistakenly refer to the Fine Arts but mean the Performing Arts (Music, Dance, Drama, etc.). However, there is some disagreement here: e.g., at York University (Toronto, Canada) Fine Arts is a faculty that includes Dance, Design, Digital Media, Film, Music, Theater and Visual Arts. Furthermore, Culinary art and creative writing are frequently considered a fine art as well