Art and Participation - Jacob Hamilton

 Jane Ellen Harrison, in her book, Ancient Art and Ritual, describes how art began as a communal magical ritual. Eventually, there was a distinction between those who performed the rituals, the performers, and those who watched, the audience. From this, art as we know it was born. Most people don’t think of art as something you participate in. Rather, it is commonly held that art is something to be observed from a distance. Must be art be like this? Is there a way to bridge the gap between art and the observer? Lewis in his essay “Weight of Glory” writes that “We want … to be united with the beauty we see.” If good art is meant to beautiful, and if beauty is a reality we are meant to be united to, shouldn’t art be something we are called to participate in? It is difficult to overcome the gap between observation and participation. It would be absurd to suggest that people should return to the archaic rituals of primordial humanity. Art, to become what it has, had to undergo the split between performer and the audience. However, might there be a way to create art that draws one in and allows one to participate in beauty and thus bridge the gap?