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Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a regular feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our past articles. Share these gems and insights with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

Artists, curators, gallerists and organisers of festivals and exhibitions share with us their insights on the importance and impact of art, in this compilation of quotes. See our earlier collections of creative perspectives from 2021 and 2020.

The quotes and photos in this compilation are drawn from articles in our weekend PhotoSparks section on art and design, as well as other articles from HerStory, SocialStory and YourStory Life. See also our compilations of quotes on the occasion of World Art Day, World Heritage Day, World Environment Day, and World Photography Day.

Make it a habit to check out YourStory’s Daily Capsule, and weekly quotes compilations StoryBites. Our Book Review section shares insights and takeaways from over 350 titles on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation.

YourStory wishes the artistic community a Happy New Year ahead, with much success, fulfilment, and impact!

Meaning of art

From cave art to modern art, we as humans have always expressed our feelings and thoughts through art. – Kavitha Sunil, Chitra Santhe 2022

Art gives the power to create dreams as a story. – Pavan Dhananjaya

Art is the oxygen that keeps society alive. – Jyoti C Singh Deo

Art is an important medium for creating awareness and opening minds to new ideas. – Vida Heydari, Vida Heydari Contemporary

Art is therapy. It’s a form of self-expression–a language without words. Art is not only your worldview or what you create, but a way of life. – Reet Baheti, Vasantha Arts

It is a play of thinking of the mind and execution of the hand. Art takes time to invent our inner soul. – Subir Dey, MayinArt

Art is the manifestation of anxious feelings, troubled minds and souls that are visualised in the form of works without leaving aesthetic values. – Wage ES, MayinArt

Art is love, affection and a space for self-analysis. Art is the beauty of essence. It creates conversations between audiences and visualisers. – Somesh Swamy, Team Yuva Artists Collective

The arts are unpredictable, tiring, they wring both your body and soul. Yet, if you stay on, the arts can give you the highest of highs ever possible in human life. – Geeta Chandran, SAF

Art appreciation

People need to understand that art is always unique, from person to person, artist to artist, form to form, and every other way. – Sreeja Suresh, Chitra Santhe 2022

The transactional mindset of buying artworks must change into looking at supporting and celebrating the artist’s creativity. – AV Ilango, Art Cube Gallery

Crafts require a high level of skillset and the remuneration should be in proportion to the effort and skill. – Anjana Somany, SAF

Awareness of fine art should extend beyond cosmopolitan cities, and it should extend beyond hobbies and skills. – Smitha Cariappa, Adipaaya exhibition

Art institutions must strive to connect not only with audiences virtually through social media platforms but also initiate an effort to try and reach out to the visually impaired. – Urvi Kothari, Tao Art Gallery

Art and craft have to be a part of our living culture, it cannot be segregated. Sadly, the commerce of it intimidates the lay man. – Tunty Chauhan, Threshold Art Gallery

Art is not just a liquid asset and is something absolutely worth cherishing for a lifetime. – Urvi Kothari, Tao Art Gallery

Galleries give platforms to artists and ensure creative and financial support for the minds and hands that shape our society, thoughts, styles, and traditions, and become voices of societal concerns. – Somak Mitra, Art Exposure Gallery

The art you live with mirrors your own inner state. – Mandira Lamba, Gallery Blueprint 12

A child’s academic success may benefit greatly from exposure to arts and crafts since it not only fosters his or her creative development, but also leads to the creation and perfection of his or her foundational talents. – Manya Roongta and Krish Nawal, Children’s Art Museum of India

Every child is an artist and it is society’s responsibility to ensure that they remain artists. – Tarushee Mehra, Museum of Goa

Art and craft must be an intrinsic element of a school’s ethos, such that several subjects and ideas are taught via artistic expression. – Manya Roongta and Krish Nawal, Children’s Art Museum of India

Pandemic impact

The pandemic had a telling effect on creative artists. Most of them were on the verge of giving up due to bleak opportunities for sales, with the markets down. – AV Ilango, Art Cube Gallery

We saw a boom of online art shows and art festivals in virtual format during the pandemic. – Rajendra, India Art Festival

Artists had to adapt to a ‘new normal’ life as art fairs, exhibitions, and workshops were indefinitely put on hold. – Pavan Dhananjaya

The pandemic was a bad time for all businesses, but more particularly for art. Art was still being viewed as a luxury, so it was most affected. – Lisa Pingale, Monalisa Kalagram

Even though online exhibitions had their own benefits, physical exhibitions have the upper hand since artists can interact with art lovers. Art lovers can connect with art in a much more effective way. – Nivedita Gouda, ‘Kala for Vidya’

Art in different forms helped make the pandemic and social isolation a lot more bearable. Online platforms especially contributed in a major way to bringing art to everyone. – Vidya  Heydari, Vida Heydari Contemporary

Since the pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in the global art market, the purpose of art fairs has taken on a new relevance. – Jaya Asokan, India Art Fair

The pandemic sent the performing arts industry to the ICU! Many performing artists are daily wage labour – they get paid only if they perform. – Geeta Chandran, SAF

Artist resilience

The pandemic caused a lot of resets, particularly with job losses and loss of lives. Yet creativity was alive like never before through various forms and expressions. – Somak Mitra, Art Exposure Gallery

Since 2020, an invisible virus has stolen away our everyday, and wrought havoc on our way of life and state of mind. Under these circumstances much artistic expression, including contemporary art, resonates more keenly than ever. – Mori Art Museum

The pandemic times have reinforced the importance of art in society. It has saved many people from boredom. It opens our eyes and sensitiveness to get a deeper comprehension of our own existence. – Karla Osorio Netto, Galeria Karla Osorio

Art has renewed relevance in the post pandemic era. It is a chronicle of our collective experience, and a source of succour. – Renu Modi, Gallery Espace

As the daily lives that we take for granted are taken away from us, various art forms may have touched our hearts with an unprecedented sense of urgency and earnestness. – Mori Art Museum curators

The pandemic taught us that even in difficult times, the arts could make a difference in the lives of people. – Sunil Kant Munjal, Serendipity Arts Foundation

The most important change post-pandemic was an open mindedness within the artisans and craft activist groups to willingly embrace technology, opening up opportunities one had never imagined. – Anjana Somany, SAF

Learning from mistakes and failures

Learning from failure helps experimentation with more confidence. – Manjunath Honnapura, Beyond Forms and Plain

Failures are an integral part of art! How can one learn without failures? – Akshata Shetty, India Art Festival

Mistakes are a source of learning, but artists should also let the artwork take its own shape and not be very rigid or conscious about the end result. – Adithyaa Sadashiv, Shapes and Forms

We make mistakes but no failures. Every theme experimented by an artist is a new learning opportunity. – Bharathi Senthilvelan, Reminiscenses

Do not seek only awards or appreciation, and do not be dejected when you are not able to create on the canvas what you had imagined. – Preeti Prasuna, Aakriti Art Goup

Creativity tips

Make art a part of yourself that continues to grow and develop. If we love our works, they will love us back. – Yurnalis Bes, MayinArt

Every creation, small or big, trivial or extraordinary, has its own essence, beauty and energy. In the eyes of an artist, all creation is creation of the divine itself. – Raadhaa SG

Explore various mediums in the art field before focusing on the one you love. Try to learn from the best people in the field of art and you will surely excel. – Hemanth Vamanshankar

An artist learns every day in every stroke. Every line has a new definition and meaning. – Prinkle Mehta, India Art Festival

In order to become successful in arts, we need three basic ingredients: observe, perceive and practice. Start looking at objects like you have never seen before. – Manoj Swain, Soulful Strokes

A curator is a visual storyteller. Through your curatorial discourse, you have to make sure that a story is worth telling – that’s where the success lies. – Wendy Amanda Coutinho, ‘832’

The road ahead

Art is a way of living life beautifully. Art can heal and give strength and power to understand the world both within and outside. – Dimple Shah, ‘Resilience’

Art, including contemporary art and the performing arts, has always reflected the times, pursued the truth, and proposed new values for the future in the face of uncertainty throughout its history. – Kataoka Mami, Aichi Triennale 2022

Indian society needs more art teachers and trainers, and art décor. Artists and entrepreneurs are society builders. – Somesh Swamy, Team Yuva Artists Collective

As India emerges as a strong economic engine, it is important to ensure that our cultural essence and vitality don’t get lost. – Sunil Kant Munjal, Serendipity Arts Foundation

Art is not made just by non-functional works, and handcraft is not defined just by skill. – Andrea Anastasio

Art should be linked to life, and not treated as a bolt-on. – Emma Roberts, Liverpool John Moores University

The reach of art should be increased so that it works as a healer for a maximum number of people in these tough times. – Deepika Bhansali Jain, Kala Alankar

Art is essential for making life meaningful. It moves the world in a better direction, it opens our mind and gives larger sense to all. – Karla Osorio Netto, Galeria Karla Osorio

(All photographs were taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at the venues: Kathmandu Art House, York Art Gallery, Aichi Triennale, India Arts Festival, Science Museum Barcelona, Mori Art Museum, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, and Serendipity Arts Festival.)