Defining the Defining the ArtsArts

How to determine what art How to determine what art really is!really is!

What is Art?What is Art?

““A broad A broad subdivision of subdivision of culture, composed culture, composed of many expressive of many expressive disciplines.”disciplines.”

You say: “????”You say: “????” In order to In order to

understand this, understand this, we must first we must first define some terms.define some terms.

Define These:Define These:

CultureCulture

ExpressiveExpressive

DisciplinesDisciplines

How Did You Do?How Did You Do?

CultureCulture: “The entire range of : “The entire range of customs, beliefs, social forms and customs, beliefs, social forms and material traits of a religious, social or material traits of a religious, social or racial group or in a given time racial group or in a given time period.”period.”

ExpressiveExpressive: “To make known one’s : “To make known one’s thoughts, feelings, etc. To represent thoughts, feelings, etc. To represent with signs, symbols, etc.”with signs, symbols, etc.”

DisciplinesDisciplines: “A field of learning, : “A field of learning, training or conditioning.”training or conditioning.”

So the Arts Are:So the Arts Are:

The ways in which The ways in which different people have different people have expressed themselves expressed themselves at different times in at different times in history.history.

The arts are a form of The arts are a form of communication for communication for the purposes of giving the purposes of giving information, recording information, recording history and history and expressing expressing individuality.individuality.

Why is this Important?Why is this Important?

It allows us to learn It allows us to learn first hand of life in first hand of life in other times. i.e. cave other times. i.e. cave drawings, art from the drawings, art from the city of Pompeii, etc.city of Pompeii, etc.

The subtle messages The subtle messages in these works tell us in these works tell us more about these more about these people than most people than most formal formal docuamentationdocuamentation

What’s in it for Us?What’s in it for Us?

By learning to By learning to understand these understand these works, we learn to works, we learn to look at things for look at things for multiple multiple perspectives.perspectives.

We expand our We expand our analytical mind.analytical mind.

We understand We understand ourselves better.ourselves better.