Cultural and Community Events Definition:
Community-based cultural events bring people together in many ways that express their ideas, traditions and values. From age-old ceremonies of commitment such as weddings to contemporary, pride promoting, collaborative, neighborhood murals, art addresses people's need for community. The arts frequently interrelate in these events.
Related Concepts:
Ceremonies and Celebrations: Ceremonies are customary acts or events acknowledging particular special occasions such as weddings, religious rites and graduations. Celebrations are festive, usually commemorative, public occasions, frequently incorporating the arts to praise, honor or mark a special event in the life of a person or group.
Rituals and Rites of Passage: Rituals and rites of passage have been sources of many specialized art forms. A ritual is a set form or system of rites, religious or secular. Rites of passage define important moments in universal stages of one's passage through life. Rites include stages of separation, threshold and reincorporation at a new level. The rite symbolizes progress in life defined by culture (i.e. coming of age ceremonies, graduations, birthdays, retirement, etc.) which can be related to art.
Public Art: Public art includes artwork and monuments readily accessible for public view. This art may function to beautify, educate, influence or celebrate communities. Frequently the desire to bring the art to the viewer is primary. The media, scale and environment may accentuate the art's intention as well as influence view point and participation.
Performance Art: Performance art is most often a combination of visual art with dramatic arts, music, or poetry. The performances may occur in galleries, public spaces, natural or urban or theatrical settings. This artform frequently combines traditional and contemporary media.
Interrelating the Arts: The arts are interrelated in many ways in artworks and events from the illustration of literature in books to the interplay of music, readings and costumes generally incorporated in celebrations. Certainly theatre, film and video integrate all of the arts as do many of the world's rituals.
Cultural and Community Events