Art is one of the few key things that make humans, humans. It is so intrinsic to the human experience. Whether it be cave art from 10,000 years ago or graffiti in downtown Monterey, people have always, and will always continue to create art. And it can be made for any number of private or public reasons. It can be used to communicate ideas, it can be used to elicit emotions, to inspire or as a product. But regardless of why art was initially created it will continually be pivotal to the human experience. I sat down with CSUMB Professor Mathew Floriani to discuss the effect art can have on a community and to discuss his experience with art.
Professor Mathew Floriani is both an Almuni of, and professor at CSUMB, he has spent a number of years a myriad of environments working for both the public and private sphere. As such he has extensive experience within his expertise, mural painting, along with general artistic forms. Notably, in his words what art is about is, “community engagement. How is our art affecting and or utilizing Community in one way or another.”
To that end what is most important, at least to Floriani, is that our art is able to touch and effect the community but to do that art needs to be able to reach those communities. And that is not always something that is guaranteed, in our society, so much of our art is locked behind private galleries and paid experiences. While obviously it is key that artists are able to profit off of their work it is also pivotal for communities to be able to experience it. In Floriani’s words “you’re really shutting off a huge part of society by hiding your work behind white walls.” And by doing that you’re not just depriving them of something pretty to look at, you’re depriving them of a valuable space for self-reflection. When Floriani discusses the effect art can have on a community, he describes it as “creating thought […] it gives you visual language. And you start to kind of break down what that means to you.” In other words what art provides to a community is a sense of insight. But by incentivizing the privatization of art we are also limiting the amount of space we give to communities for that self-reflection that art offers. In fact step one according to Floriani is making sure that art is accessible to communities, “You gotta go to them, right. To have them come to you as a disconnect, right? Not to say that you're always welcome at certain communities or civilizations or whatever, but the main idea is how are we going to get any form of engagement without first meeting with them?”
But fundamentally that is what the Visual and Public Arts department does. Moreover the CSUMB VPA has been exceptionally effective at bringing art to public spaces. One example is the mural outside the College of Arts and Humanities building but another is the spaces dedicated to art which now hold public galleries on campus. A recent example of this was the exhibit titled Art Solidarity and the Power of Image within the CAHS building open to all. In this way its clear that the VPA program here has really paved a path for the art community in general to be able to provide more for the community and with that provide real spaces to critically reflect on the world around us.
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