I’ve enjoyed many classes throughout my eight years at Juilliard, but I am currently taking a class, which has left a particularly strong impact on me. It is a class called American Society and The Arts taught by our president Joseph W. Polisi. I’ve never challenged the role of the artist as much as this class compels me to do. It has inspired me to ask many questions.
What is the role of the artist? What is it that we can do to help and support society as a whole? How can we reach beyond the pursuit of executing our skill successfully, but rather serve our communities in the process? As we face this upcoming election, we ask ourselves two questions. What is distinct about this particular election and what can we do to help our country make a wise decision on November 8th?
It all goes back to education and by this, I don’t mean institutionalized education, but rather self-education, self-awareness and inner growth of the people. One has to be able to self-reflect in an objective and analytic manner in order to recognize why one shares particular opinions or supports particular agendas. If we can’t recognize patterns within our own thoughts and actions, there is no chance we will recognize them in someone else, be it a friend, a family member or a presidential candidate.
The artist can encourage the public to ask important questions. The artist has the opportunity to communicate with society with the protection of the 1st amendment. Freedom of speech enables the artist to express subject matter and viewpoint as he or she pleases. Not only does the artist have the ability to express freely, he or she also has the privilege of being heard by people who want to listen. Most of the time, audiences pay to experience art. Someone who has paid for an experience is most likely to be open for what that experience has to offer. No matter what the artist has to say, it will be heard in some form or another and that is a privilege. It is a power, which ought to be used to serve society as a whole. This is our prime opportunity to encourage self- and social awareness.
Every piece of art addresses certain topics in some form or another. In a play or any kind of spoken art, the subject matter is very easy to decipher. In this case, the artist can express current political events directly, which gives the audience an opportunity to view issues from an outside perspective, which makes it easier to analyze in a subjective manner. This may help the masses learn more about what is taking place in the world and how it can be changed for the better. Even non-verbal art forms can evoke a vast variety of meaningful thoughts and emotions. The heightened emotional experience can inspire the listener to delve deeper and gain a more sophisticated understanding of themselves and their emotional as well as rational endeavors. A process of inner growth takes place, which is the seed for any political change. If inner growth can be achieved on an individual level, it will eventually blossom within an entire society.
Art imitates life and life imitates art. They are a mere reflection of each other. Therefore, the artist serves as a mirror to society. We are mirroring back to our audiences reality as we see it. This profound exchange can evoke all sorts of thought processes within our audiences, but also within ourselves. Let’s look at artists such as Beyoncé for example, who has used her platform to create a mirror for society to recognize the institutionalized racism prevalent in the United States. She is not the first; artists such as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder have been addressing racism along with many other issues for many decades. If we go back a few centuries, we see Shakespeare using art to mirror political and societal issues of the time. Even though his plays are a reflection of past centuries, they are still relevant to society to this day. They help us decipher reality as a whole on a more sophisticated level.
This kind of art goes beyond entertainment. It creates a momentum within the audience’s life to recognize, challenge and change unhealthy patterns. It opens doors for individual and societal growth. This is the kind of art we want to be creating. If we use our art as a compassionate, yet brutally honest mirror for society, we are using our skill beyond the pursuit of self-fulfillment. That is our goal. And that is the intention I take with me as I leave The Juilliard School this May.
