Art is fundamental to society
In a time when a word like "staycation" is so well understood it will soon be added to Webster's, free entertainment draws bigger crowds. Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. comes another regular opportunity for that in Coeur d'Alene: Artwalk.
The monthly event on the second Friday of April through November (plus the first Friday in December) comes courtesy of local art dealers, merchants and the Coeur d'Alene Arts and Culture Alliance.
If you've never been, it's a lovely way to spend an evening. Walk down Sherman Avenue and view art at your own pace (maps/list of participating merchants available), sip free wine or sample snacks, and occasionally you can see art-in-the-making as some artists work on their crafts before you.
The alliance is a group of volunteers and businesses whose mission is to provide art and culture education to the community, as well as aid local artists' success. More than Artwalk, they also sponsor the Riverstone summer concert series, Musicwalk, and other activities year-round.
Think art is low priority in a tough economy? Facts may surprise you. The first comprehensive federal arts program was a product of the Great Depression. It created jobs and offered hope. Any financial adviser will verify the connection between psychology and the health of financial markets. Of course basic necessities must come first, but there is an enduring human need for expression.
Art both reflects and influences society. Art can trigger the end of a war; one famous gut-wrenching photograph, as part of a string of photojournalists' work which evoked a shift in how Americans see war, began a flurry of public outcry against America's presence in Vietnam. In the Middle Ages visual artists often served as picketers when a scared public couldn't, including subtle (and some subjects outright forbidden) social protests in their paintings.
Art has always reflected society and culture - a fact a college history professor taught me well. He opened every unit in history not with dates or political events, but with art and music, asking us to glean the themes of these periods from the artists' work and watch how societies develop in breadth. He was so right; the baroque period politics matched the tension and contrasts in its art and music. The Renaissance brought free-wheeling brushes, less rigid mathematical musical patterns, looser clothing, and a broader thinking into European laws.
More information on the Arts and Culture Alliance or Artwalk is at www.artsincda.org or (208) 292-1629. My thanks to Virginia Johnson for the topic suggestion.
Sholeh Patrick, J.D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com