Crystal Waters And Balloons – Playing With Art

Its Saturday, the last day at sea on a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean. Last night became one of the more memorable evenings I’ve had in a long time. Because I’m new to ballroom dance, I have been looking for social gatherings to practice my hard-earned dance steps. A typical cruise line will offer dance lessons with the activities team. So, I went about the ship looking for opportunities.

The theme was 70’s Disco Night and it was held in the Grand Foyer where everyone is watching on each level of the deck. You know how this can go: a few brave and well-intentioned souls who start out on the floor after the second song, sometimes they’re off-beat but they don’t care. Last night was no exception. Soon a few more got out there, then two or three more.

Then—an amazing thing happened. The Activities Manager showed up with bags of inflated balloons in blue and white, some large and some small. He started bouncing the balloons into the air over the heads of dancers and then he started dancing. The room went electric. All the people who were standing on the sidelines suddenly had the bravery to get on the dance floor. They were watching for a chance to slap at the balloons as they rose and fell overhead. Then folks started swaying to the music and a dance train was formed. It wound through the Foyer into the nearby passageways, growing longer and longer. The dance floor filled to overflowing capacity with dancers from every age, race, and ethnic family.

What changed the room from ho-hum to power-charged? The chance to play and feel like a kid again. Play is so important to adults, but few really take the time to work it into a fully-charged electronically measured day.

As an artist, painting is very much like play. I booked this cruise to teach a watercolor class on board as a guest speaker. I watched the 50-some partakers get caught up in the wonder of water and colors swirling around like balloons in air. I realized it is like being in elementary school. The sight of pristine colors, the virgin brush, and a blank page can take the mind to a different place. A place of innocence and fun.  

Galleries On The Go has a large stable of artists who teach, demonstrate, speak, and exhibit. For more information on how to get the fun back into your life, contact [email protected]

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Does Having An Art Gallery Near Me Increase The Value Of My Property?

Without hard statistics, it would be difficult to determine. But having watched the development of St. Petersburg, Florida over the last 14 years I can say that property values have risen at an incredible rate. When I talked with former Mayor Rick Baker, we discussed the city’s role in making a priority of supporting the arts. Having a top-down approach to city incentives and development through public art has boosted growth exponentially.

Daniel Grant of the Wall Street Journal documents a similar economic impact in Rhode Island. “’The arts district was an effective marketing tool to pull artists and developers to our city,’ says Herb Weiss, Pawtucket’s economic and cultural affairs officer. So far, eight of 23 formerly unoccupied mills have been fully renovated and rented to residential and commercial tenants. Art galleries, performing-arts troupes, restaurants, cafes and shops have made the once-dreary industrial neighborhood hip and inviting as well.”

Sculptures by Donald Gerola sit outside a converted mill in Pawtucket, R.I. A mill town in which many of the mills had closed, Pawtucket was an early adopter of the arts-district strategy to spur redevelopment. PHOTO: ADAM GLANZMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Americans for the Arts publishes annual reports on the bed-tax effect. Visitors will stay longer and eat out, spending an average of $25 per person, when they know they have access to cultural events such as local gallery art exhibits.

My observation, with the advent of the online art gallery, is that people prefer the emotional experience of viewing local original art and public art projects over viewing an online art gallery. One can’t totally do away with the human experience through online buying. Humans still want and need the human emotional connection they feel to the story the artist is telling. And the most logical place is through local gallery art.

Encourage your local leadership to support the arts—art is important in our lives. For free tips on creating your own art gallery wall, contact us : https://galleriesonthego.com/contact-us

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Why Is Art Important? 5 Reasons Why Art Is Good For Business

Importance of Galleries

It’s good for your business, it IS good business.

Vital to our life experience is the transcendent art experience… artist communicating with the audience. Energy reaches out from the mind of one human being to another through the creation of an emotional and aesthetic work of art. By looking at art, a person can have a strong emotional response whether happy or melancholic, serene or energizing. Our human spirit longs for a connection with the unseen and the spiritual. It is uplifting to be a part of something outside ourselves. Art can be the vessel for transporting the mind and the imagination to places beyond our daily scope.

According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other parts of life.  “The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions,” says Mary Ann Kohl, arts educator and author.

5 Reasons Why Art Is Good For Business

For more information on how to enhance your business environment, contact us here: Galleries On The Go

Source: http://www.artforce.academy/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/5-Reasons-Why-Art-is-Good-for-Business.jpeg

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