Attending local events that showcase your area’s art, culture, and history is essential for a sense of belonging, connections to the community, and well-being.
It is like getting into the flow of what your community and its people are all about. It is getting out there, and I am surprised and delighted at how many individuals demonstrate their talents and diversity. They are sharing, which also gives us the courage to share.
People who get involved in arts and culture are happier with their lives.
Everyone has something to offer others, even if it is being an appreciative spectator of what someone else is doing. But participating in an art exhibition also does something more. It can inspire us to bring out our “inner artist,” and we start to dabble in projects. Doing arts and crafts is a sort of self-guided form of art therapy.
You don’t have to be an excellent artist to benefit from dabbling in art. Practicing any form of art uses an entirely different part of the brain than we use to think analytically. If you have ever made a craft, knitted, crocheted, sewn something, painted a picture, or sung a song, you will attest to how fast time flew by. It is even well-documented that people with some form of pain will forget all about the pain when doing something creative.
With some instruction from an artist, even something as simple as using unpainted birdhouses can turn into works of art. As you can see above, even those students who said they could not paint each produced something beautiful. Artist Ruth Smith of Pickering, Ontario, gave high school volunteers some art tips at the Lynde House Museum summer camp in 2018 as a thank-you for their help. Ruth’s work is for sale at the Warren General Store located at Lynde House Museum.
Getting away from your computer and TV screens and participating in an event, gathering, or demonstration makes you feel a more authentic connection. It is all about balance!
Sometimes you need to go for a walk in nature. It is awesome to enjoy the outdoors with someone else, but even if you are alone, you see others along the way, and this connection through just a friendly nod is sometimes all it takes to feel more at peace. There you are, just like they are enjoying the trees, sky, and flowers. Nurturing this connection with others and the natural world is even more important when you work or study from home. Students attending pa online high schools can enrich their home education even further by achieving a balance between sitting and studying at the computer and getting outside and connecting with the world around them.
Some like crowds, and some like solitude.
Sometimes, you want to be with a whole crowd and feel the presence of so many there at once. This is often the pull we have to go out and sit in a coffee shop and be among people, even if we don’t know them. Or go to a movie theater and gasp or laugh along with others. Or attend a street fair or cultural event and walk alongside others, looking at everything and eating hot dogs and fries, or lining up for a half-hour to try something more exotic, like fried artichokes!
Place Shaping
People who organize and plan art, culture, and historical events and enactments and those who present their unique talents and skills through these events create better communities. It is called “Place Shaping,” according to a new study in England by the Arts Council. This practice determines how people often choose a place to live. It helps make residents in a community happier with where they live and their quality of life because of their access to arts and culture.
We can all engage in Place Shaping in small ways. We can turn our lawns into gardens, volunteer, and connect with nature. Have a look at Amy Stross’s book The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People.
“People Who Attend Cultural Events Are Happier With Their Lives
“the Lyons Inquiry by the Arts Council” in England.
Than People Who Don’t.”
Further, the Study conducted by Lyons Inquiry by the Arts Council in England states that it is like a marriage made in heaven when local businesses support their local arts and culture. The whole community can be uplifted by the support and funding businesses can give to the culture, thereby increasing the health of their business. Plus, with the added benefits of worker self-esteem, companies get brownie points for being good corporate citizens. This is not limited to the big corporations either. Still, in many instances, when local small businesses team up with some local art communities, museums, or cultural events, it is a win-win for everyone.
“The term ‘place-shaping’ is defined within The Lyons Inquiry report as the ‘creative use of powers and influence to promote the general well-being of a community and its citizens.’ Place-shaping is now widely understood to describe how local partners collectively use their influence, powers, creativity, and abilities to create attractive, prosperous, and safe communities where people want to live, work, and do business.”
Quilts from the Lynde House Museum Collections.
Museums are repositories of Art & Culture.
Even cities that rely on tourism need their local citizens to buy into making their hometown great! In some depressed areas, it has been found that, to a large extent, one of the reasons for this is that people have lost hope. It is more than money. You can find areas that have suffered terribly for years to see them start to recover and attract more business and thus more financial welfare for their citizens just through a small group of people who began beautifying their own corner of the city!
Citizens Shaping their Environment.
By applying rolled-up sleeves to dust a place off, it showcases and appreciates some of its hidden gems and can start to turn things around. This happened in Buffalo, NY, where, through one garden at a time, almost the whole city changed its image and the people who live there.
One man we talked to in Buffalo, someone we just happened to meet on one of those times when we got out on nature walks, and he commented about how much he loved Buffalo.
“So easy to get around in,” he said. “It is one of the best-designed cities due to the park system built by Frederick Law Olmsted.”
A passerby
The story of Olmstead is about how one man changed the future culture of a city. It showcases the power of an artist’s vision when teamed up with the funding of businesses and planners. Inspired by the gracious parks, town squares, and boulevards in Paris, France, Olmsted designed a large part of Buffalo land at the request of Buffalo planners in the mid-1860s. Buffalo became a City in a Park. Everyone in Buffalo. as well as the many tourists, is the recipient of Olmstead’s expertise.
The unique culture and art of a city, town, or village further the collective sense of identity for those who live there.
and was taken at the Lewiston Art Festival.
Please note: The author of this post has received no financial remuneration for mentions of creative people, books, products, places, or businesses mentioned in this post.
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