Importance of Art

In the Ted talk “Can Art Amend History?”, artist Titus Kaphar discusses how a visit to the Natural History Museum in New York City evoked him to ask if art can amend the travesties that have taken place in history.  This happened when he and his sons were visiting the museum and his older son noticed that the copper statue of Theodore Roosevelt.  This statue depicts our 26th president riding a horse, with an african american and native american walking on either side of his horse.  His son asked him, “how come he gets to ride while they have to walk?”.  This provoked Kaphar to ask what he as an artist could do in order to amend history?  He chose the word amend specifically because he thinks it’s important to remember past travesties.

The Effective Altruism is the concept of doing all that you can in order to help the less fortunate.  In Rhys Southan’s article “Is Art a Waste of Time?”, he describes their movement as “working hard to earn money and then giving as much of it as you can to the needy”.  In this article Southan goes on a retreat with two EAs in hope of understanding their lifestyle.  While on this retreat, Southan is also writing a screenplay in hope of getting it turned into a movie.  As he starts buying into the EAs ideology, he begins to wonder if his screenplay, or even art as a whole, is a waste of time.  Would the resources being used to create art do more good if it were being used to help the less fortunate?

Throughout reading these two texts separately, I couldn’t decide whether or not I thought art was a waste of these time.  Even after reading both of them I couldn’t develop a firm opinion. However once I compared the two, I made up my mind.  I believe art is an incredible asset that could be used to make a difference in the world, especially if it were paired with the EAs ideology.  If art was being made with the specific idea of making a difference, it could inspire people to go out and help the less fortunate.