Press, True Art Brings Original Touch in Our Lives, Asserts H. Ary Stillman
October 26, 1929
The Sioux City Tribune
by H. Ary Stillman
We hear a great deal of talk about art. The dailies, weeklies and monthlies give considerable space to the new form of activities in American Life. We hear of wealthy people giving large sums of money to art institutes and museums. And we wonder where these tendencies come from. Is it really an inward movement sprouted from the general American life or is it merely the plaything of the few?
During the last 25 years American life has been entirely transformed. We are no longer using our individual taste in our life. Our houses are built and decorated according to the fashion provided. We dress according to styles handed to us by designers from New York City. We are getting things which are the product of mass production.
Need Individual Expression
The more this mass production is developing the more we feel a craving for an individual expression. Even our educational institutions are affected by the standardization of modern life.
Art is the expression of the individual. True art does not aim to supply the demand of the masses. It serves its own purpose. It brings an original touch in our life. Fine arts is taking out the monotony of life; it gives new sound to our ears and form and colors to our eyes.
True art teaches us how to see nature and how to enjoy life to its fullest. We often hear people say they do not understand art. Art is not to be understood but to be felt. We must train ourselves to appreciate the beautiful effect of a sunset but we do not have to use our reasoning power for that. The beauties of fine arts grow on us as we come in closer contact with it. The more we see the work of great masters, the more we appreciate their qualities.
Art Center Required
To develop this appreciation we must have a temple where the finer things are being housed. An art center will gather all that which the individuality creates when it is endowed with the gift of self expression and the people may go and see and learn how to enjoy the beauties of nature.
Here in Sioux City we know of the existence of a Society of Fine Arts; of the existence of musical and dramatic organizations with the aim of bringing before the people of this community the noblest things which make life worth while. It is about time that all these scattered forces be united and with the support of the art loving people of this city, to create a temple of fine arts which will be a pride to this community
