Art Has Helped People To Cope With Covid-19

Art is a form of healing and recovery, and provides solace and therapy during times of stress. It helps safeguard mental and spiritual health.

Art during Corona times

What is the one thing that never fails to soothe the mind and body during a calamity? It’s not hard to guess. Of course Art. It has once again emerged as a healer and also as a weapon to spread awareness about corona virus that has been causing illness and death across the world.

The arts help people to cope in dark times – even during a pandemic that prevents us experiencing art and culture alongside others in the same physical spaces. Art is a form of healing and recovery, and provides solace and therapy during times of stress. It helps safeguard mental and spiritual health, and reduce barriers between people, cultures and languages. We look at art usually from the entertainment point of view, it is during such trying times that we realise its true purpose of connecting souls and bringing succour when little else can.

Humans have been producing art before they were even human. We’ve found wonderful cave paintings, Neanderthal decorative art. There’s an innate need to relate our experience, and I think a lot of art is also about relating with each other. It’s about trying to transmit one’s experience to others or create experiences together in a more classical ritual. The way we understand art now, in western history, is a tiny dot in the history of humankind’s relationship with producing art. But an integral part of human existence is producing art. It will always be a necessity. There’s this idea that it’s only produced when you have all your other basic needs taken care of, but art is a basic need.

In this time of crisis and isolation, the role of art becomes more central to our lives, whether we realise it or not.

Though the COVID-19 crisis has had a severe emotional and economic impact on the artistic community, artists are regrouping and reinventing themselves for this new normal. Artists are finding creative ways to keep people connected during a pandemic that keeps us apart.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

Many galleries now have online viewings, and artists are resorting even more to social media for showcasing their offerings. Musicians and singers have live-streamed concerts from home, with online audiences quick to show their appreciation with a deluge of likes, shares and comments.

People themselves have become amateur artists by sharing videos of their creative works – ranging from cooking and dancing to drawings and graphic art.

Photo Courtesy: Pexels and Shruti Arts

Comments