The Art of Appreciation

June 26, 2014
           Day 57

For a long time now, I've been encouraging people to seek out their art and share it more with the world, or at least their friends and family. 

Some enjoy writing, and others make music; some are actors, dancers, photographers, singers, or painters.  The performing arts are many, and I've always believed everyone has something unique to offer, whether it's a talent we like to express publicly, or just something we enjoy doing in the comfort and privacy of our homes, with no one but our pets and plants to witness.

But then someone recently told me they just didn't have an art, and more importantly, they helped me see that this was perfectly okay! 

I hadn't intended to exact judgment on the person or the concept.  Instead, I was just trying to bring something out of people by holding this philosophy as a truth.  His words made me really begin to think about it though, and on Monday this past week, I received the answer I'd been looking for.

On Monday night, I attended the opening night performance of ABT's Swan Lake at Lincoln Center.  My friend Suzanne and I had great seats in the front row of the Dress Circle, so we could see the huge collection of musicians in the orchestra, led by the conductor, and of course the stage itself.  On the stage were the most incredible ballet dancers you'll ever see.  And behind the curtains, I knew there were directors, stagehands, makeup artists, perhaps costume designers or at least costume menders.  In offices beyond there, maybe elsewhere in the city, there were producers and fundraisers, set designers, grant writers, and choreographers.  In every way, I was seeing not just the beautiful expressions of art, but the artists themselves, and I knew many more artists of all kinds were beyond the curtains as well.

But this wasn't what struck me the most.  What really blew me away was the realization that all of this art being performed on the stage, in front of the stage in the orchestra, and behind the stage in a thousand other ways, was all for the benefit of us, the viewers. 

The art is nothing without the appreciation of the art.

All around this magnificent theatre, The Metropolitan Opera House, nearly 4,000 guests were seated to experience the art of other people.  All around me, art was being watched, being heard, being thought about, being absorbed in a million different ways by thousands of people from all nationalities and backgrounds. 

Art itself is bigger than all of us, and though a whole lot of people become partakers in the arts, trained professionals in acting, dancing, painting, writing, or any other fantastic medium like these, the art itself begs the appreciation of so many more!  Art deserves the full appreciation of us all, whether or not we partake in it as co-creators of any visible, audible, or experiential design.  We are artists simply through our ability to appreciate. 

And by creating the art, fostering the art, or even just appreciating the art, we also become, in some incredible, transcendental way, a special part of the art itself.