Besides being a pictorial joy for many people, art can often be a problem, difficult to understand.

What is it for? Is it, or should it be, a clear and self-consciously a representation of the (real) world in which we observers live? If this is so, why do we need it? We have a chair, why do we need a picture of one? We live in a landscape, by the sea, or next to a factory, why have another one hanging on the wall, or even more ostentatiously in a gallery or other public space?

What of the artist? What is their intention in creating this ‘work’; i.e. expending their labour? Is this to engage us in reminiscence, a pleasurable sensation of colour, subject matter, touch, joy, anger and so on? Is the artist conveying some message to us, about ourselves, the world in which we live, the state of humanity, about themselves, their innermost hopes and fears? Emotion and empathy key human aspects of our engagement.
Does it make any difference to us what form the artwork is in? Is a painting, or a sculpture, or photograph, or a film, a play, or a song, all much the same when it comes to assessing the value of the cultural artefact, to the artist, to us, to society in general, the marketplace for artworks?

So, does it matter what form the artwork takes if this is often fashion, a sign of the times? One way to chart the passage of time, fix cultural shifts? And, does the value of these artworks depend on how much people are prepared to pay for them, for these ‘objects’ to become their private property?

Faced with the wide variety of artworks, past and present, people often say ‘I know what I like’, but why do they like it, and equally dislike something else? And how and why do they know this? Is this due to their personal taste in matters of art aligned to their taste in everyday life things in general; food, clothes, people, sports and so on. It may be that people’s preferences in art are mainly a factor of their family life, their education, or their gender, social class or cultural group? Those key aspects of our everyday lives that shape our values.

Can art change us, as individuals and socially? Can we, do we, change its meaning and value by the very act of engaging with it, our interpretation, rendering the appreciation of art an interactive process? So, should art reflect change, record it for posterity, and/or challenge the status quo, highlight injustices, demand change. Be in the vanguard of personal and collective transformation, creating thinking and doing spaces to discuss, debate, argue over? Or, is this over theorising the meaning and value of art, as since the late 19th century at least, Oscar Wilde and others in the Aesthetic Movement, proclaimed ‘art for art’s sake’, no external justifications for it.

So, lots of questions, what about some answers, the answers?

Many very clever and creative people have argued over these questions, about what art is, and what it is for; even what it could be for. Is this a vital part of our education, talking and, perhaps more importantly, doing it!

For me part of the ‘doing’ is promoting the educational dimension to all this, essential to our making, and using art; skills to learn and practice, an appreciation of art in our lives to develop, considering contexts in the creation of art, and engagement. Enlightenment and a part of the civilising process perhaps?

What I know with certainty is that a key aspect of my role in community education is to create and facilitate opportunities for people to find and use their voice through creativity, to have agency. Life is like a game of snakes and ladders, and I want to see many more people stepping on to more ladders.