Ginny Brink suggests that actively taking part in the arts may be the key to a fulfilled life.
Remember splashing paint as a child? Or drumming and strumming as a teenager? Or perhaps writing poems to a loved one, freeing the pain of loss through a song, listening with stunned amazement as people applauded a story ? your story. Perhaps, too, you might recall the warm camaraderie of play rehearsals or the calm, private satisfaction of crafting a beautiful object. Feelings of joy, passion and energy, exhilaration and elation, of relief, warmth, peace, compassion and togetherness. Experiences like these are the essence of voluntary arts and crafts activities: those arts and crafts activities that people undertake everywhere, just for themselves, for leisure, for fun, because they love it, and for the inner rewards they bring.
Statistics reveal that 73% of adults and 80% of children felt happier as a result of participating in the arts, and 85% wanted to do it again. And, what?s more, happy people are healthy people. And happy people create happy, healthy, rounded communities, which, in turn, create and sustain social and economic wealth. Life?s challenges ? illness, accidents, bereavement, divorce, financial pressures, family dynamics, our environment, work, stress, discrimination ? are eased through creative activity. There is an increasing body of research that shows, time and again, that engaging in arts activities plays a key role in enhancing and sustaining well-being, in helping us deal with, prevent and even heal many of the issues we face as individuals and as a society. And as the British Medical Journal confidently asserts ?If health is about adaptation, understanding and acceptance, then the arts may be more potent than anything medicine has to offer.?
Consider the following:
- People who regularly engage in cultural activity live longer. The arts create a sense of well-being that can stimulate the immune system; dance releases endorphins that make us feel good; music can reduce our heart rate; looking at paintings calms us down.
- Socially isolated people are three to five times more likely to die prematurely than people with a network of social relationships such as those developed through arts activity ? and those with active social lives spend less on health care.
- Creative expression renews social connection in areas undermined by poverty, crime and mistrust. The opportunity to communicate equally via a wider, non-verbal and creative vocabulary gives socially excluded people a voice.
- Creative expression transcends language, age, class, race, and cultural barriers. In fact, artistic exploration, expression and sharing of personal experience highlights the positive aspects of our differences, enhancing individual and cultural self-esteem and increasing understanding and acceptance.
- Arts activities that engage people directly as participants are more inclusive than other leisure activities, including sport. There are few barriers to participation in the arts: you don?t have to look a certain way, be a certain age or have a required level of fitness, activities often need little equipment and they produce immediate results. The non-prescriptive nature of participatory arts activity is one of its greatest strengths.
- Artistic expression is unique in giving us a chance to explore what life means. In creating, we discover new meanings and reveal these to others. Through this reflection and re-evaluation we are better able to take actions that shape our lives ? which, in turn, strengthens our sense of achievement, and our motivation to do more.
- People discover new personal talents and abilities through artistic endeavour. Practical, technical and social skills are easily gained in non-threatening creative environments; participants also develop the ability to use their imaginations and to visualise - essential tools for dealing with life?s ever changing situations.
What is especially wonderful is that doing art isn?t the preserve of a uniquely gifted few. Anyone can, and most do, participate in the arts in some way, at some time, in their lives. In fact, creative expression is an essential part of what it means to be human. Many of the Articles within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which both the UK and the Republic of Ireland are signatories, affirm that opportunities to exercise this right are vital to our dignity and personal development. Article 27 very specifically states that ?everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community [and] to enjoy the arts??
There?s never any question as to the value of sport for leisure, pleasure and personal development. With the benefits of creative activity being so clear ? happiness, achievement, satisfaction, health and well-being, job-creation, community-building, personal and social development ? why should it be any different for the voluntary arts?
Ginny Brink is Core Services Co-ordinator at Voluntary Arts Network. t: 029 2039 5395; e: info@voluntaryarts.org; w: http://www.voluntaryarts.org