On 14 June, the Singapore news publication published results of a survey ‘Essential, or not?’, the survey collated responses from 1000 respondents that were a “nationally representative sampling across age, gender and income groups.” The survey revealed that 71% of the respondents thought that artists were the most non-essential occupation.
Before we dive into the topic, let’s just take a look what is the definition of “Art” that was created by artists.
Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), expressing the author’s imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. The three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture and architecture. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of the arts.
Though there is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art, and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency and creation. The nature of art and related concepts, such as creativity and interpretation, are explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics.
Now if Artist is top 1 Non essential job and…
That means all painting, sculpture and architecture. music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts is not needed.
Then I guess you will have no movie to watch, no music to listen, no beautiful painting prints on your tshirt, no paintings or sculptures in your home interior design plan, just think about that, I guess we don’t need to dive into this topic any more!
What differentiate human being from animal and machines is the creativity and the chase of beauty in life, whether art is essential or not is not a topic to argue any more, it’s part of us, you just can’t simply deny that!
(image from The Straits Times)