The Importance of the Arts








My family went camping at Lake Cachuma a few weeks ago, and, for the first time, I attended an outdoor PCPA play in Solvang. Although I have attended many musical performances, plays and operas over the years, this play stood out as one of the best theater performances that I had ever seen.

In the play’s program guide, the artistic director of the event, Mark Booher, wrote about the fact that many of the people at the performance were “arts supporters” – people who are willing to invest their money and time in promoting the arts. I would definitely classify myself in that category. But perhaps more importantly, Mr. Booher goes on to say that those of us who attend these events are not only supporting the arts, but the arts support us also.

He says that the arts, “… lift our heaviness, they buoy us on the stormy sea, they elevate our low points, they bolster our foundations and occasionally they prop up our otherwise crumbling facades. The arts support our fully realized humanity – the expression of ideas, feelings and realities that are otherwise difficult to express and activate. Art is one of the prime means of conveyance of our internal essences to our outward life – bringing us from being into action, from silence to communication, from isolation to connectedness.”

I thought about that quote as I watched the Too Young to Marry trio perform at Cambria Pines Lodge a few days later. Their music did express their inward beauty that we, as an audience, would never have experienced without their music.

Below are a couple of links to their music that day. I hope that you will be inspired to become even more of an arts supporter, and that you will find yourself supported and encouraged by the arts as well.