Pandemic highlights importance of the arts

Dylon Harrison

Editor-in-chief

I have written about why the arts are important in the past. It is a subject that is always close to my heart. In fact, I wrote my main article on the subject in high school. However, I could never have imagined how important they would be during a global pandemic.

At this point, we’ve been living with COVID-19 for about eight months. Without a doubt, during this time, we all got bored at some point. It is likely that when we got bored, we turned to something to do with the arts for entertainment, especially at the start of the pandemic when everything was closed and there was no sports.

Art and artists are a big part of our daily entertainment. Whether you are listening to music, watching your favorite show, reading a book, or playing a video game, artists are the reason you are able to do it.

It is often easy to ignore the importance of the arts in our society. I can’t count how many times in my life I have heard of the arts as just a hobby or heard an artist being told they need a real job.

The simple truth is that a work in the arts is real work. Millions of people are employed in an artistic profession, and every piece of art we consume probably has a team of artists working for the end result.

A perfect example of this can be found in the end credits of any movie. Nobody likes to watch the credits of movies because they take a long time to go through, but think about it. The reason they take so long is that an insane number of people had to put in the time and effort to make this movie happen.

For books and music, you obviously have the author of whatever it is, but you don’t see the behind-the-scenes work of the editors, marketers, producers, or the many other people working on the project. before it was made public.

So many artists, especially performing artists, have been out of work since the start of the pandemic, and it is absolutely tragic. We rely on entertainment to get through the day, but forget about the people who provide it when they need it.

Im a theater major. I have friends around the world who are trying to find work in the theater industry as I write this. A lot of them can’t find a job right now, and it has nothing to do with the talent they’re producing.

We all know that it is difficult to have a career in the arts. That’s why so many people don’t see it as a legitimate career path. The COVID-19 pandemic is only making the lives of those who choose to take this path more difficult.

So I beg you, as you sit in your home in quarantine playing video games, watching Netflix, or listening to your favorite playlist while you work out, consider all the artists who have worked to make this an option for you.

Appreciate them. Thank them if you know them, and if you can, find ways to help artists who may be struggling to find work during these difficult times.