ARTS Blog: Russia’s assault on Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, with a series of missile attacks and the use of long-range artillery. My mother called me from Ukraine in the middle of the night, crying. I assured her that everything will be alright. The next day I was headed south from my home in Florida for a ribbon-cutting event and the idea of war seemed to be surreal. How can we celebrate a new mural when people are being killed by invaders from a neighboring country?
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Something I’ve learned through my years at CMU is just how much art matters. I remember the day this mural was painted in my hometown. It was a collection of massive loteria cards but swapped out with references to our city. I think it has been graffitied one time in its many many years and considering basically any and every wall gets vandalized this is saying a lot. To me, this tells me that people feel something towards that work. Whether that is admiration, a sense of belonging, a sense of respect, or anything else is irrelevant. Thankfully we I have never experienced anything close to what is currently happening in Ukraine, but reading this article made me remember of the art I do have around. Sure, the art itself is not going to physically help the war, but there is a greater human emotion connected to the tiny things in your environment. And those tiny things have value in their own ways.
I think that this article does a really good job of highlighting what art is good for. A lot of art for social change is often disregarded because it doesn’t usually immediately help those it seeks to help. However, in my opinion, art is what makes people feel things. It is what awakens emotion and empathy and kindness. Even if some may be unaware of it, I truly believe that everyone has had at least one piece of art that caused a shift in the way they saw the world and the way they saw themselves. I think that that is one of the most important things about art: its ability to inspire change. One of the reasons I chose to pursue art is because I want to make a difference with the work that I do and I couldn’t see a better way to do that then with art.
As the article said, art is not going to directly help. A mural, no matter how beautiful, will not stop the bombs that kill thousands daily. What art will do, is make people notice. As Zelensky said towards the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the war is lost when the west forgets. Speeches, social media posts, and crowdsourced fundraisers can only go so far. Eventually, people move on with their lives and forget that on the other side of Europe, a war is being waged that is killing thousands of innocent people. This article shows us just how important art can be. Art can spread a message, keep people informed about what is going on, keep people emotionally invested in the events, and bring people together to support a cause. Even more simply, art can spread a little bit of joy in a dark world and make an important impact while doing it.
I really love this article and the question that it poses. I believe that art is at the center of everything. It can bring awareness, depict history, and deliver a message, just like the author said. But at the same time also disagree with the quote, that the “mural is not going to help.” I believe that the mural in question, and other murals or street art can help and that they do. Everyone has the power to make a difference. Art has the ability to reach people’s emotions and sometimes that is the best way to create change, sometimes creating or showing empathy it is the only way to change things. Being in the business of art is hard because it usually calls on people to change or to think differently. This is how I know that, yes, art can help fight a war. I just wish that more people had this fundamental understanding.
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