Holidays are all around us now, especially in New York City. The holidays can be both a positive and a negative experience in several different ways. The holidays can be a reason for families and friends to come together or it can turn into a moneymaking scheme. New York successfully does both through the use of art, performances, and displays.
Holiday artwork can be enjoyed at locations such as the Jewish Museum where they exhibit “Hanukkah around the world” and New York Botanical Garden where large-scale gingerbread houses can be admired. Performances such as Radio City’s Christmas spectacular and New York City Ballet’s: The Nutcracker can serve as entertainment for those who find themselves in New York for the holiday season. Last but not least, displays throughout the city such as the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center and the 5th Avenue Holiday Windows Tour can capture the attention of families and shoppers alike.
Now that I’ve said all of this, the question of why this is relevant comes up. Well, I’d like to discuss the negative aspects of the holiday season and how beautiful art is commercialized just for the sake of making a profit. Commercializing art degrades the value of the art, the meaning behind it, and its essence. (As we have read previously) Finding this commercialization is too easy. Let’s list some more examples: holiday cards, holiday movies, decorations, gifts, wrapping paper, holiday stamps, and much more. Greedy people turned the season of compassion and joy into a season of demand and hunger (for money and items). Art that was made intricately over a long period of time is now used on cards and stamps. The problem I have with that is that people tend to look over the art itself and look for what’s inside or what they can gain from it. If people took the time to really appreciate what they were buying and receiving and returned to a state of humbleness then it would be an entirely different story. Art should be treasured for the intrinsic value it possesses not the money it can make.
To play devil’s advocate, I can argue that the holidays bring forth a whole new “genre” of art, which opens up a lot of options for today’s artists. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely agree that the holidays are more commercialized than ever before, however, I believe a lot of great art has come out of the “holiday season” genre. For example, many holiday films such as The Polar Express, Home Alone, and A Christmas Story, have been popular for years, even decades in the cases of Home Alone and A Christmas Story. Even visual art like the holiday windows at Macy’s Herald Square require a lot of skill and promote a lot of tourism, which in the end, helps everyone because it creates job. There is much more to be seen than just another piece of holiday “art” whether it’s film or window décor.
I agree with you that many arts are commercialized, which diminishes the virtual value of art. Look at today’s films, many of them just try to excite the audiences nerves, rather than inspire them. In my point of view, films should be like good books which inspire people to think and to discover. I do not like the “hero” movies like Batman and Spiderman. Yes, they do create hero, and demonstrate the idea of saving the world; however, does any single individual really can do that? These movies just show violence, which is bad for the development of children, at least in my point of view. Sadly, these movies are more attractive to the audience because the audience is seeking only excitement through films. These audience are the source of profits of the company who make the films. The more this type of movie demanded, the more they create for more money. This again, hit the discussion we developed in class about if money ruined art. In my point of view, if the film companies restrict their greediness for money and make more meaningful movie, art of film would not be ruined. However, sadly, which company wants to make less profit in today’s world?