In our current society, art is often viewed as a luxury. The wealthy are supposed to pay exorbitant prices for it, while the rest of us are supposed to be entitled to consume it for free.
It shows how confused our society is about one of the most influential and valuable services anyone can provide.
Most everything you use, experience and consume in this world was created to one degree or another by an artist. Without artists, we would have a stagnant, dull and uninspired existence.
Imagine a world without any music — no music to listen to on your phone or the radio, no music to make movies and TV commercials engaging, and no songs to sing for celebrating birthdays or simply to entertain and motivate ourselves.
On top of that, imagine a world with no visual art — no graphic design, no illustration, no pictures in books, no architectural style, no clothing design, no paintings hanging on walls anywhere, no murals, etc.
Then take away performing arts, such as movies, plays, dance, street performers, etc., and what do you have left?
Artists help us understand who we are in the present and dream up a worthwhile future for us to journey into. Look around you. Almost everything you see was dreamed up by an artist at some point in the past. Our culture, which keeps us civilized, entertained, and inspired, is created by artists and shared by us all.
We should value artists above all others — they are the ones working hard, often at great sacrifice to themselves, to make live worth living for the rest of us.
Yet, artists are typically the worst paid workers in our society — often struggling to make ends meet. We do not adequately value them and support them in proper ratio to the value they add to our lives.
A major goal of the Cedar Palace Project is to support artists and help them thrive, so they can create amazing music, visual art, industrial art, performing art, and all other forms of art that enrich our lives, provide emotional support when we need it, inspire us to do great things and be amazing people, and build a bright future for us all.
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