http://www.tempo.com.ph/news.php?aid=44591

World Community Arts Day: Art as a catalyst for caring and sharing


As a day reserved to use creativity and artistic skills to create a world
festival atmosphere and illustrate how celebration through art can provide the
answers to our daily lives, World Community Arts Day is celebrated on February
17 each year. This year’s theme "Art as a Catalyst for Caring and Sharing"
focuses on the important role of the arts in bringing harmony, meaning, and
order in this world, and in shaking us out of our complacency.

Art has a way of making people think in different ways and to sense the
possibilities that could allow them to inspire and to see interconnections about
unpredictable things in ways they may not have considered. Art has also a way of
making us think freely, dream, and sense, all of which often prove to be
invaluable to communities.

Throughout the ages, art has played a crucial role in life. From the homes we
live in to the books we read, art has a way of expressing ideas and beliefs that
can record the experiences of all people.

In ancient culture, art played a crucial role as seen in the pictures cave
dwellers drew on the walls of caves. Paintings recorded the life and death of
Jesus Christ and throughout the decades art has recorded history.

Many people do not recognize that the concepts taught by the arts can lead to
major changes for causes they support, such as the protection of the environment
and social equality. Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley once suggested that "poets are
the acknowledged legislators of the world." Thus writers are often revered or
reviled because they disturb the status quo, stir passions, and force us to see
things differently. Many times they emphasize fixed truths during the times when
we may have lost our way.

In the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau, "the world of reality has its limits but
the world of imagination is boundless." Whether you are poet, artist,
playwright, painter, or composer, your works are the gateway to reality and a
critical ingredient to far-reaching change.