Visual art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as a painting or sculpture, to be appreciated primarily for its beauty or emotional power. At first glance, it might be easy to dismiss art as something children create for fun, or a luxury item collected and displayed in buildings owned by high-income individuals and corporations. However, if we look closer into a work of art, we can start to find a story in each piece told by its creator. In America, the stories of dominant groups are often the only ones represented in our classrooms, museums and public buildings — all of which are home to a variety of art forms we see from the time we are a child in kindergarten learning to fingerpaint, to an adult reading a magazine or walking past a painting in our doctor’s office.
According to a
recent study by Williams College, “85.4% of the works in the collections of all major U.S. museums belong to white artists, and 87.4% are by men. African American artists have the lowest share with just 1.2% of the works; Asian artists total at 9%; and Hispanic and Latino artists constitute only 2.8% of the artists.” While these percentages may vary across disciplines and mediums, much of what we see is created by visual artists. This statistic shares a glimpse into who is creating the images we most frequently see, and in turn, what viewpoints are being shared at large.
In addition to artist representation, access to arts education is also inequitable in the United States. Research has shown that youth with access to the arts show higher academic achievement, graduation rates and employment rates later in life. Still, according to Americans for the Arts, “African American and Hispanic students have less than half of the access to arts education than their white peers.” The fact that minority races have less access to arts education than white youth perpetuates inequities for exhibited and career artists, immediately affecting whose voice is represented in the visuals we see daily. Reflect on what groups of people have you seen represented in artwork throughout your life. What artists do you know by name? What does this say about whose ideas are being represented in our communities?
