What does art do for us?
The video linked above is from a recent virtual talk I gave. It responds to a question the host asked me at the event:
“Beyond entertainment,” they asked,
“What does art do for us—for our mental health & well-being?”
In my work, discussions of arts and health often revolve around art’s ability to reduce pain or difficulty. But the reality is that often, humans engage with art less to alleviate a difficult experience than accompany or articulate it.
Art offers a “space” where we don’t have to change ourselves or our feelings as quickly as possible. It’s a space where we feel like we’re allowed or permitted to have the actual range of human experience that humans actually have — rather than trying to tamp that experience down into something small and palatable.
In other words, art is often a way we give ourselves permission to have whatever challenging experience we're having. And, it’s often where we discover that other people have had that experience as well.
Of course, this sense of permission and company or connection… these don’t make suffering “okay.” And they don’t take away our motivation to reduce current and future suffering.
But they’re part of art’s profound reminder:
”It's not like my obligation to the universe or to my society is to stop feeling this as fast as I possibly can.”
Art can be a tool or resource that helps us allow and accept that there's a wide range of human experience that includes “really, really down downs—and really, really up ups.” It suggests that this range is not itself a problem. We don’t need to get rid of it; at least not always. We need space for it, which art can open up.
Can art alleviate pain and difficulty? Yes, more often than we realize.
But even when pain remains, art’s spacious accompaniment of that pain, its ability to help humans articulate or share our suffering — these are critical supports for mental health.
