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Art changes the way we view the world . It gives use propaganda and censorship to address the people . Some art can be offensive to others . Some people believ the way that has happened is because of the art . Many of us weren’t able to see what happen during the first world or with the nazi with hilter but were able to knowledge them and feel what happened because of art .

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What is the relationship between art and society?

Does art imitate life - or is it the other way around?

Traditionally, we have believed that art imitates life. The painter represents what he or she sees by producing a scene on a canvas. The sculptor does the same with bronze or stone. A photographer or film maker does it even more directly. A writer describes life in his or her books. This simple concept is known as mimesis.

But some have questioned the one-way nature of mimesis by arguing that art also changes the way we view the world, and in fact, life sometimes imitates art rather than the other way around. The person who first articulated this belief effectively was Oscar Wilde. Speaking about the foggy conditions in London in the late 19 th century, he wrote that the way we perceive them changed because of art. Referring to the "wonderful brown fogs that come creeping down our streets, blurring the gas lamps and turning houses into shadows" he argued that "poets and painters have taught [people] the loveliness of such effects". According to Wilde, "They did not exist till Art had invented them."

And you don't have to look too far to see anti-mimesis in our lives. To what extent is our outlook on life altered by ideas we read in books? The portrayal of people in films? The styles we see in fashion photography? One great example of this is the TV series The Sopranos, and how it portrayed both the Mafia in the USA and the FBI.

Art's influence on society: propaganda and censorship

Throughout history, it has always been the case that art has the power to change society, especially when new media are used to express an idea. During the First World War, for example, movie cameras were used for the first time to record trench warfare - when the film was shown in cinemas in Britain, audiences ran out screaming. This led to the government censoring further such use of such a powerful medium. And in government censorship, and use of art as propaganda, we see how seriously governments take the effect of art.

All of the major dictators of the C20th understood the power of art to influence the population. In Nazi Germany, Hitler set up the Ministry of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. It was headed by Goebbels, who made sure that nothing was published, performed, or exhibited without his approval.

And what Goebbels approved, of course, only fit in with Nazi ideology and ideas. In terms of art, this meant no modern and abstract art, certainly nothing hostile to the regime, and nothing that featured images other than the stereotypical blonde-haired, blue eyed set in idyllic pastoral scenes of blissful happiness.

In Stalinist Russia, there was also a keen understanding of the power of art. Art portrayed contented peasants, industrious workers, and Stalin himself. In fact, Stalin was shown god-like in many paintings, a phenomenon known as the Cult of Stalin. Just as in Germany, gigantic architectural projects expressed the power of the state.

However, there is no doubt that in Russia there were greater artistic achievements than in Nazi Germany. Composers worked with fewer hindrances - as seen in the works by Prokoviev and Shostakovich, and film-makers such as Eisenstein emerged.

Art's influence on society: the trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover

But even under less oppressive governments, the artistic expression of certain ideas can be subject to control. One great example is the book 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by DH Lawrence, which was deemed offensive on many levels. In this book, Constance Reid, a woman from a progressive liberal middle class family marries a minor member of the aristocracy, Lord Clifford Chatterley, and takes the title 'Lady Chatterley'. But her husband is injured in the First World War, confined to a wheelchair, and left impotent. Despite this, he becomes a successful writer and businessman. It is more his obsession with financial success and fame rather than any physical difficulties which come between him and his wife, and she begins an affair with their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors.

The largely aristocratic 'establishment' of Britain at the time - the book was published in Italy in 1928 - were shocked by many aspects of the book. First, there was the fact that the book was 'obscene', in the way it went into explicit detail the affair that took place (see below). Second, there was the fact that a women was breaking her marriage vows, something considered far worse than a man behaving in the same way. Finally, it represented an intimate relationship between a member of the 'lower' classes (although it emerges during the story that Mellors is actually well-educated, and became an officer in the army during the First World War) and the 'upper' classes, a concept that was totally taboo in Britain at that time. The book was duly banned.

But the book was republished by Penguin books in 1960. The attorney general, Reginald Manningham-Buller (dubbed 'Bullying-Manners' by the journalist and author Bernard Levin) had to read only four chapters to decide to prosecute Penguin books for publishing it. What annoyed him was not just the content, but the fact that the price of the book meant it was affordable to women and members of the lower classes (remember that only few women worked at this time, and husbands were generally in charge of family finances).

The trial was a disaster for Manningham-Buller and the prosecution. They had failed to find any experts to support their case, in stark contrast to Penguin's defence team, which had brought in authors, journalists, academics, and even members of the clergy to defend the book. Manningham-Buller and his team had very little idea of what Lawrence had been trying to express in his book, regularly being caught out by the superior insight of the witnesses they were trying to catch out. And although they tried to shock the jury - in his opening speech, Manningham-Buller announced: "The word 'fuck' or 'fucking' appears no less than 30 times . . . 'Cunt' 14 times; 'balls' 13 times; 'shit' and 'arse' six times apiece; 'cock' four times; 'piss' three times, and so on." - they were unable to prove that the book would have a negative influence on the readers it was aimed at.

According to the Guardian:

No other jury verdict in British history has had such a deep social impact. Over the next three months Penguin sold 3m copies of the book - an example of what many years later was described as "the Spycatcher effect", by which the attempt to suppress a book through unsuccessful litigation serves only to promote huge sales. The jury - that iconic representative of democratic society - had given its imprimatur to ending the taboo on sexual discussion in art and entertainment. Within a few years the stifling censorship of the theatre by the lord chamberlain had been abolished, and a gritty realism emerged in British cinema and drama. ( Saturday Night and Sunday Morning came out at the same time as the unexpurgated Lady Chatterley, and very soon Peter Finch was commenting on Glenda Jackson's "tired old tits" in Sunday Bloody Sunday and Ken Tynan said the first "fuck" on the BBC.) Homosexuality was decriminalised, abortions were available on reasonable demand, and in order to obtain a divorce it was unnecessary to prove that a spouse had committed the "matrimonial crime" of adultery. Judges no longer put on black caps to sentence prisoners to hang by the neck until dead.

Can we say, though, that it was art in this case that changed society, or was it an interaction between human sciences (ie, the law) and the arts (the book) that led to change? This is from the same Guardian article:

...the message of Lady Chatterley's Lover, half a century after the trial, is that literature in itself does no harm at all. The damage that gets attributed to books - and to plays and movies and cartoons - is caused by the actions of people who try to suppress them.

The effect of art: presentation

What other piece of art has profoundly changed the way we view the world? And was it the art that did it, or the way it was used that made the impact? Use this site to help you introduce to us an influential piece of art. Think about the type of change it wrought, for example, ethical, social, metaphysical, etc.

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What is the relationship between art and society

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Traditionally, we have believed that art imitates life. The painter represents what he or she sees by producing a scene on a canvas. The sculptor does the same with bronze or stone. A photographer or film maker does it even more directly. A writer describes life in his or her books.

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Art increases opportunity to self express and joy it also reduces delinquent risk in the youth. Art also improves human skills and creativity ability. Art can build an community identity and their pride . Art can also reduces stress which can be very helpful.

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Kids who are involved in art can be helped academically and most likely to be involved with the community more . Its a good way to distract there self from what your going through. Art raises awareness about any type of issues . Also it can be therapeutic for people who have disabilities.

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Subtle Ways Art Is Making an Impact

When most people think about art, they think about paintings on a wall, or sculptures in a garden, or brightly-colored origami. It's easy to appreciate the craftsmanship of well-done paintings and sculptures, and they can be aesthetically pleasing, but most people don't see how this art can make an impact in other ways.

When administrators decide to make budget cuts to a school curriculum, the arts program is usually among the first to get the ax. Their reasoning is that art is fun and interesting, but it doesn't help students get a job, and it doesn't give students skills that they will need to succeed in life.

Luckily we are here to prove those short-sighted administrators wrong. Not all examples on the following list show how art helps students succeed. But some of the examples do, and others prove that art makes a difference in people's lives, even if some don't notice it.

1. It can help students academically

We went over this briefly in our roundup yesterday, but the National Endowment for The Arts released a study explaining that at-risk students who have a high level of arts engagement actually perform better academically, aspire to higher career goals, and become more active in the community. The report cautions that cause doesn't necessarily mean correlation in these instances, but unlocking a child's creativity seems to be help make the child a more well-rounded student. Sure, math and reading and science are important subjects for any young student to learn about. But the arts aren't just some fluff subject that are a pleasant break from intensive learning. The arts are a subject just like the rest of them, and they are helping students blossom just the same.

2. It can be a positive distraction

The unfortunate truth of illness and disease is that hospitals can be depressing places to spend a lot of time, especially for young children. In Massachusetts, decision-makers have found a way to alleviate some of that boredom and sadness using art. Over the past five years, instructors from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts have been making regular trips to the Children's Hospital in Boston and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to help young patients get a break from their often grueling treatments - and the results are encouraging. The children love it, and their parents can see it is improving the children's quality of life. Researchers say the exposure to the arts helps decrease levels of stress as well, and regular cancer treatments are undoubtedly stressful for anyone, let alone young children. It may not provide direct medical assistance, but don't try and tell us it isn't making a difference in these children's lives.

3. It can be therapeutic

Developmental disabilities such as autism and schizophrenia can be difficult for anyone to deal with. Mood swings, depression, anger, and reclusive behavior are hallmarks of some of these disabilities, and unfortunately, medical science can only do so much to curb these symptoms. That difficulty is exactly why some people are thinking outside the box, and using expressive art therapy to bring the patients out of their shell. Whether it's music, sketching, dancing, or even dramatic reenactments, art therapy provides abstract benefits to those who are struggling with disabilities. This doesn't cure them, but nothing will. Instead it improves their mood, and helps them become less reclusive. And every little bit helps.

4. It raises awareness

The spoken and written word can be powerful ways to bring light to issues of any magnitude. But let's not forget about visual art either. It could be photographers documenting damage to nature, or videographers creating compelling films about AIDS or violations of human rights in other countries, or even painted plates raising awareness about the issue of capital punishment. Whatever it is, art is a powerful way for people to convey a message, sometimes even more powerful than words. Take the plates example, stories of prisoners on death row can be powerful, but paintings depicting the last meal of more than 400 prisoners inspire far more emotion visually than any written word could provide - no matter how eloquently written.

Tammi Edwards

Author, Journalist & Art Enthusiast | Tammi Edwards is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) where she earned two Bachelor's Degrees, and later a Juris Doctor (JD). Her interest in an artistic career took root while an undergraduate at UCSB when the LaBelle Modeling Agency contracted her as a model & voiceover talent.

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Subtle Ways Art Is Making an Impact | TheArtCareerProject.com

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Subtle Ways Art Is Making an Impact When most people think about art, they think about paintings on a wall, or sculptures in a garden, or brightly-colored origami. It's easy to appreciate the craftsmanship of well-done paintings and sculptures, and they can be aesthetically pleasing, but most people don't see how this art can make an impact in other ways.

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Art doesnt tell you what to do , it gives you another opportunity.  Art can inspire someone it can also change the way you feel about something. Art can represent a society or even a community.

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Why art has the power to change the world

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Davos 2016: The arts and culture represent one of the few areas in our society where people can come together to share an experience even if they see the world in radically different ways, argues Olafur Eliasson.

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Art allows people who have different backgrounds to connect and communicate about the piece. Art can change the way you see things and your perspective. It also shares experiences so you can know how something was at the time

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How Does Art Affect Culture and Society? - Masterpiece Mixers

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From Reference.com Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Research has shown art affects the fundamental sense of self. Painting, sculpture, music, literature and the other arts are often considered to be the repository of a…