OUGD502 The Leeds Salon at The Tetley - 'Is Art Good For Us?'

The Leeds Salon at The Tetley - 'Is Art Good For Us?'

'Angus Kennedy, author of Being Cultured: In Defence of Discrimination, asks whether, today, we are burdening culture and the arts with too much. Are the arts good for us? And is there still room for aesthetic judgments or just impact statements?'

On Saturday the 19th of November I attended a debate at The Tetley. Kennedy had very strong controversial views that art cannot change society and needs to stop being used as a band aid to try and heal a broken community. He explained it as if the government used it as a technique to help try and fix social problems, that he believes does not work. He thinks that art should only be done by masters and that we cannot label people great artists just because they have something wrong with them (like being disabled). This was quite a strong statement to put out there. He also went on to say that people the are interested in popular culture don't actually know why they like it. I also found this to be really insulting because he has generalised massively.

As his views were quite controversial he got lot's of questions to debate against his viewpoints. One that stuck out for me was a caregiver who was trying to explain the importance of art to patients with Alzheimer's and where she had seen the benefits first hand. He then proceeded to talk about the aesthetics of art rather than the other benefits it could clearly provide like the woman had talked about.

Although I did not agree with what Kennedy talked about, I still feel like he didn't actually answer the question at hand. It was an experience to go to, as it was not what I was expecting, however I am glad that I went because it made me realise how much I love art and I can see the benefits that it has within society even if he cannot.