During the renaissance, the Masters of Art were treated as equals to the king and Pope. In the 21st century, being an artist isn’t even considered a “real” career. It doesn’t seem likely that people would find different values in that amount of time, so did we just shift focus?

“My favorite artist is a band called tool”, Senior Isaac Waldron said.

“Mine is Kanye west”, said Senior Boston Ziegler.

Other responses were Sade, Mac Miller, Taylor Swift, SiR, and Chris Stapleton. These were after clarifying that any medium was an appropriate answer, such as painters, music artists, sculptors, and anything else. So, why did everyone respond with a musician?

One of the main reasons this happens is because of availability. Over the past fifty years, music has become almost infinitely available to the average person, especially young ones. With the growing popularity of focusing on producers, music is now designed to be streamed and listened to in the car, on the plane, or while working. Physical media cannot compete with this, physical art is not meant to be consumed through a screen, it is meant to be experienced in person, and that will always make it less convenient.

While there may be some discouraging statistics, some sources show less than 10% of adults participate in creating visual media. These are often taken out of context. Many people would have you think art had no influence in their life. However, they don’t realize everyone is affected by art, everyone listens to music if they realize it or not.

Nearly two thirds of teenagers participate in creating music, that can be: singing, band, writing music, etc. So, while it is important to create visual media, we also need to remember that we haven’t lost art, it’s not gone from our lives, it’s just changed shape.