Lauren Cassidy opens our eyes to the immense impact the Arts have onour imagination and creative minds.
Lockdown has been mentally, physically, and creatively exhausting for everyone. Personally, I have found it difficult to maintain motivation for college work. As an English Literature student, I draw considerable inspiration from the Arts. The closure of galleries, theatres, and museums earlier this year left me lacking any sort of creative inspiration. Art helps us to understand the past, to convey anxieties about our present, and to shape the trajectory of an ambiguous future.
In these particularly strange times, many cultural institutions have adapted, making their resources available online. The National Gallery of Ireland has introduced a new virtual tour. Similarly, Google Arts and Culture allows users to travel around the world, visiting attractions like New York’s MoMA and the Acropolis of Athens. Art helps me transcend my bedroom’s four walls, chipping away at claustrophobia, and creating a liminal space in my imagination. Consuming art is a liberating act, catalysing simultaneous emotions of wonder, unease, and sublime inspiration.
I think that the creative process is a little symbiotic; we often draw our inspiration from the inspiration of others. I have indulged in these new digital curation projects – many of which I did not have access to before the pandemic. This practice helps calm my thoughts and allows me to let them out on paper. Art is never stagnant but created in the encounter between it and its spectator. In a historical moment when time itself is stagnant, it’s important to keep creating, and inspiring others with our creations.