There is something that I’ve seen too often—schools trimming the funding for arts, culture at the bottom of a government’s agenda, and individuals relegating painting, music, for instance, to background noise, something one somehow manages to do without. You experience it too, I imagine? The void that creeps where there is no art anymore. Such is the crux of the argument for why culture and arts are important. Subtract them, and you’re left with a body without rhythm, a city without pulse.
Effects that Hit Harder than a News Headlines
Art does not need permission. It crops up on protest streets, on album drops, on graffiti walls, and on photojournalism. It says what people are too afraid, or too tired, to write on paper. Culture does it one step further, placing power within rituals, words, even food. I’ve seen documentaries alter views faster than textbooks ever have. The power of art and culture is not academic. It’s visceral. When one posts a reel or a short video based on feeling alone, it does not simply entertain—it alters something.
Social media plays a strange but important part here. Much of the work is there now—and especially among younger artists who know how to get things moving. The audience is important to them. Learn more from Views4You if you’re curious how that is handled. The algorithm might not care about depth, but individuals do. The good work rises through.
You Won’t Learn This in a Classroom
Some things can simply never be learned by chalk on a whiteboard. I remember one student who never uttered a word all period—except when we were learning protest songs. The same student led a workshop on spoken word at the end of the term. The stories we read through culture endure because they dialogue, not lecture on. Whether a generations-hands-down tribal dance routine or a movie whose space between two characters is immense, it teaches on a different plane than a standardized test ever can.
That is why there needs to be a struggle for arts and culture, especially within schools. Not for creativity itself, but through it memory, knowledge, and pride are created—valued things we do not know we need until we do not need them anymore.
Influence is the New Economy
The way that artists are using cultural identity now is business. Not a bad thing—just a real thing. A musician who knows their culture and how to present it on Instagram is powerful. People are drawn to authenticity. That is the game. If you’re interested in how they do it, click here. The key is not about aesthetics. It is about connection to culture. People do not simply listen to a song because it is catchy—they listen to it because it sounds home to them.
That is the power of being culturally relevant. It is not manufactured. It is lived, then articulated. People who move toward that create influence that endures. And mediums that reward that creativity give culture a place to grow.
Culture is Being Flattened
That’s the concern I have. The more global we become, the more the local voice is lost. You hear it in cities full of tourists where local crafts are made into tacky souvenirs. Or when native languages are lost because the younger generation doesn’t speak them anymore.
Art fights flatness. Art makes people remember where they came from—even if they never even went there at all. I’ve entered a gallery that included native cloths on the walls with side-by-side digital photos of the earth on which they were created. You were proud there. You sensed history breathe
One can never overstate the role of culture and of art at times like these. Without them, there is no resistance. No memory. Just noise.
Even Training Culture for the Algorithm Now
AI no longer simply crunches spreadsheets anymore. It is present on your feed, voice- remixing itself, emulating styles, curating trends. It is thrilling yet dangerous. It democratizes creation on one end, on another end it can reduce arts to data points.
But the tools are here now. It will not do to pretend they’re not. Cultural leaders and artists must learn the tools. If you’re trying to figure out how to show up more fully here in this AI-created world, improve your reach from here. The tools are evolving, but the need for true stories? That persists.
I’ve experimented with AI software at workshops, and while they’re able to offer a structure or a pace that might work, they’re never able to make it soulful. Only a person can do that.
As Art Disappears, So Does Feeling
You can feel it when a place loses its culture. The buildings are vacant. The activities are commercialized. People hurry by more quickly, talk less. I visited a city where all the murals were painted over with corporate color. The people themselves did not yet notice. But they stopped holding gatherings there soon enough. The music stopped. The artists moved away
That is the cost of ignoring the power of arts and culture. You do not miss beauty, you miss belonging.
FAQs
Why is it important to protect cultural expression?
Because cultural expression carries identity. It’s how communities preserve their voice, history, and emotional truth—even when systems try to erase them.
How does art influence modern society?
Art moves faster than policy. It can spotlight injustice, normalize new ideas, and create emotional connection that traditional communication can’t replicate.
Can digital platforms replace traditional art spaces?
They can expand reach, sure, but they shouldn’t replace physical, communal spaces. The digital world needs to amplify, not replace, real-life cultural experience.
