“The beauty parlor of civilization”

Andrew Taylor, on his blog The Artful Manager, shares a thought that struck him while attending a conference on the arts: a participant said, "We need to stop making the arts so special."

It may seem counter-intuitive, but it's true. Art, the literary arts included, needs to be treated as if it were just like any other thing we do. Because when we give it special treatment, then we create what we have right now: a "strange and often self-produced gulf between creative expression and everyday life." Taylor says:

Art and artistic expression shouldn't be the jewelry of society, it should be part of the blood, part of the muscle, and part of the bone. When our strategies set us apart from the world so that we can be separately admired, supported, and valued, we shouldn't be surprised when we are perceived as separate.

Then he ends with the money quote, from John Dewey:

As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure.