What is Art and Why Does It Matter?
This provocative query is the title of an online magazine that was recently launched by the Yale University Art Gallery. The Gallery, the artistic heart of a world-renowned institution of higher learning, is home to a collection whose breadth and depth would be prized by many municipal and public museums. Not content to serve as simply a repository for great works of art, however, the Gallery seeks to take an active part in the artistic life of the University and its surrounding community.
This online magazine is intended as a forum for learning about art in many different forms, and for discussions on looking at art, understanding art, and making art a part of our everyday lives.
Questions are posed: Why is ugly beautiful? Why don’t people talk about art the way they talk about movies? New ideas about familiar works are encouraged. Both undergraduate and graduate students are invited to present illustrative talks about various aspects of art. And new collaborative works are created, using the Gallery’s collection as a starting point.
This is only a small sample of the options open to virtual visitors to the Yale Gallery, so come on in!
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