Tag: Nat Turner
The importance of art, even in politics, from the view of a political scientist
I fell in love with political science while in community college, studying the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the impact of Nat Turner’s Insurrection and the history of the Old South.
Yet I really got hooked on following the art of political thinking while earning a minor in political science at Radford University, about 100 miles northeast of Bristol.
And, of course, there’s clearly an art to producing political cartoons.
Now, having covered hundreds of artists for this newspaper since the 1990s, I remain concerned about how important arts remain — in both school and society.
After all, said amateur artist and political scientist Eric Drummond Smith, art and politics do go hand-in-hand.
“If you’re an engineer, a designer, whether you’re a natural scientist or anything else, you’ve got to be imaginative.” So, Smith said, having artistic skills “helps us prepare for everything.” That means art class is not just play time.
Well, actually, it can be: It is partly playtime for the mind.
“Art is half of what makes life worth living,” said Smith, who lives in Abingdon.
“Life isn’t about just making it.
It’s about having quality of life.