When people think about art, they usually think about paintings, sculptures, and drawings. But those are just small aspects of art. Art is comprised of so much more than that. It’s a means of indirect communication between people through various artistic representations. It’s a way that people can “speak their minds” without the necessity of a language. It’s a type of work that some people create in which they unconsciously express their hidden emotions about a topic they feel strongly about. And the craziest thing about art is that it is something immobile, yet it has the power to move people. One play, one painting, and one song can spark a thousand emotions; can bring back memories that you could’ve sworn you’ve forgotten; and can make you cry, laugh, smile, and feel angry all at the same time until you realize that what’s making you feel this way is just a play, just a painting, and just a song.

Some people create art for the purpose of delivering a message to society about politics, war, civil rights, fashion, and so on. But not all art has to have some sort of message. Some artists simply make art as a means of self-expression, others for pure entertainment, and many merely for aesthetic pleasure. But then there is other art that’s made to preserve cultural values and traditions.

Institutions affiliated with art, such as museums, facilitate the process of educating people about history and the culture of many civilizations that cease to exist today. The Brooklyn Museum, for example, contains a cornucopia of Egyptian works of art that teach people about what was important to the Egyptian civilization, such as cats, religion, and pharaohs. The museum also has plenty of abstract works of art that translate a story to its viewer; however, it is purely up to the imagination of the viewer to interpret the art. And that’s another great thing about art: it has the ability to generate intellectual discourse and debate between people of different genders, races, classes, and backgrounds. It’s the universal language that everyone speaks, and thereby, it acts as a unifier amongst people from all over the world.

Don’t get me wrong, even though a lot of art is amazing, not all artworks are liked by people, and most certainly, not all art is “aesthetically pleasing”.  A wise person once said, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” And this quote is indubitably true. I don’t love all works of art. Art means something different to everyone. When I would see certain works of art, I would sometimes have a hard time connecting with them because I couldn’t relate to them, and therefore, couldn’t enjoy them. I remember in the Macaulay “Night at the Museum” my group was going around picking two artworks that they liked, and then we had to discuss each work. A lot of my group members were captivated by this one sculpture of an Egyptian’s body in toga-like clothing. I didn’t like the sculpture at all. Frankly, it sparked absolutely no emotion in me because it lacked a face! I find faces very crucial because they convey the feelings of the subject, and without it, I couldn’t connect with the sculpture. However, I did start to appreciate the piece a lot more once I heard the observations of my fellow scholars. In their eyes, the absence of the head symbolized many different things. The Greek-like clothing that was part of the Egyptian sculpture proved the existence of cultural diffusion. I guess that even though not all artwork is liked, art is always capable of initiating thought-provoking conversations, giving people the opportunity to hear out various opinions, and creating a common language that everyone can understand.