Art is irreplaceable

“Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world – equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods. Art addresses us in the fullness of our being – simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images.

Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. And it remembers. As Robert Frost once said about poetry, ‘It is a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget.’ Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity. You don’t outgrow art. The same work can mean something different at each stage of your life. A good book changes as you change.”

– Dana Gioia, American poet and Chairman National Endowment for the Arts, in his 17 June 2007 Commencement Address at Stanford University