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How many of you have visited the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi or any art gallery anywhere? If you have been to one, that’s great but if you haven’t, then you are surely missing out on a rich experience of human life.  The Internet gives the option of viewing an art gallery online, but making the plan, moving out of your den, and spending time there looking at the artworks is what matters.

Art is anything that soothes your visual sense, something that expresses an imagination, emotion or experience. Art includes paintings, sculptures, and architecture. ‘Art’ has been differentiated from ‘performing arts’; music, theatre, film, and dance fall into the latter.

Although the blog starts with a confining question, art isn’t confined. It isn’t only available in art galleries. Nature is divine art. You look at a tree, a grasshopper, an ant, a flower, another human being or, not to brag, if you closely look at yourself too, anything that’s made by nature, if you are just capable enough to look closely, you will experience beauty in its full blossom. But if you can’t look closely and you need some help to appreciate different forms of beauty that there are, then you can visit an art gallery and experience what the artists did and feel all that they attempted to bring out on the canvas.

Listed here are the reasons why one MUST go to art galleries:

1. Minimal or No Entry Fee

To the financially constrained: art galleries either are free or they have minimal charges, but the experience is expensive. When you stand in front of an artwork, say a painting, and you look at it with wonder, trying to get into the state of mind and heart of the creator, thinking about the old times when it must have been created, it ignites curiosity inside you. It fires up your imagination. That brings us to the next reason.

2. Creativity

Surrounded by art and artistic people, your inner creativity gets boosted up. To some people, visiting an art gallery is like meditating, their minds are peaceful and clear, and they are able to make better judgments and decisions that they are more likely to stick by.

3. Supporting an Artist

When you visit an art gallery, you support a local business and an artist. There’s no purchase to be made specifically but when you give your time to this activity, you are actually increasing the footfall and giving the business possibility and hope. Also, the power of word-of-mouth must be acknowledged. When you will make the effort and go out, most likely you’re going to have a good time, you will wish to share it on social media and that will promote this endeavor, ultimately profiting the enterprise.

4. Education

art galleries are proven to make people smart and sensitive. A visit to an art gallery will augment your memory. Visiting art galleries and museums change how students think and feel for the better. It improves thinking and empathy. The tolerance for history and critical thinking are found to be improved after a visit to an art gallery or museum. Some art galleries are historical repositories. Art and history go together. To get a grasp on this fluency between the two sharpens memory. When you visit an art gallery or a museum, you will encounter a slew of new objects, ideas, techniques, people, traditions, and facts. In short, a whole lot of new knowledge. To visit an art gallery is a joyful and vibrant education!

5. Health

Experiencing art decreases stress. The human brain is ingrained to process art, parts of the brain made for deep thinking are automatically stimulated even when one isn’t critically thinking about it. Just standing there and viewing art makes you healthier. A research was conducted in Norway in which information from 130,000 people ages 13 and above was collected about how frequently they participated in activities like watching movies and visiting art galleries. A definite correlation was discovered between increased rates of good health and participating in cultural activities like watching art and attending concerts. It showed increased satisfaction with life and lower rates of depression and anxiety in men and women. Art is known to mimic the celebrated physical sensation of falling in love because it triggers dopamine release- the chemical in the human body related to feelings of love, pleasure and desire. Art enhances emotional intelligence. Opening up to the art world will add to the overall experience of being a human. When something happens with intensity within a human being, there is a natural desire to share it, to open up the same for others to get a feel of, art is an expression of some sort of profoundness that one witnessed. It is capable of making us touch the same inside ourselves.

6. Puzzles, Enigma, and Challenges

Art makes you think. It puzzles you. Sometimes, it creates an enigma that stays with you forever. Smile of Mona Lisa is famous for the same. ‘Indeterminacy’ is a critical tool in art, cinema, and literature. We tend to remember things that caused confusion in our brains because the brain seeks an explanation. Artworks that one must have witnessed in their school, if they get to see them again later in life, bring alive that mystery and puzzlement. It’s exciting to have such connections with art and artists in life. It adds to the overall experience of being alive and thriving.

7. Community

Art brings one closer to others. It makes them part of something larger than themselves. People in the 21st century have all the luxury and comfort that our grandparents could not have even imagined, it’s been a quick and transformative advance in lifestyles driven by technology but somewhere we have lost something really important. The UK recently appointed a Minister for Loneliness and that should suffice, the situation in other societies isn’t much different. The world is a global village after all. Efforts to bring people out of their homes, away from being glued to radiant screens, and to get involved in the varied aspects of life are crucial to keeping this and the following generation sane and sentient. An art gallery online can give you a fair idea of artworks, upcoming events, prices, and artists, etc., but it can never match the overall experience one has in the actual gallery.

Art is a kind of comfort, pleasure, joy, adventure, and has great importance in itself. It is plain fun to visit an art gallery even if one can’t stand the proposed reasons above. An art gallery online is still useful. It provides the facility to look up the new arrivals, the trends, new artists and gives first-hand information about the artwork. It may be compared to walking by an art gallery on a rainy night, wiping the glass window and trying to peep through it, but it’s still relevant. Visiting an art gallery versus experiencing the art gallery online is analogous to visiting a person or looking at them through a digital screen. You know the difference.