Quotes

Each year, BC Arts and Culture Week features quotes from individuals, some well-known and others up-and-coming, that highlight, inspire and encourage advocates of the arts all over BC and beyond.

• "Art is my life, and the life of my people. I want my work through the many pieces I have created, to live and carry on the rich tradition of our people...I have always felt the importance of passing on my knowledge and my skills to my sons, my family and any person interested in learning. We cannot allow our art to die out, for it connects us to our past and intertwines us in the present and makes way for us into the future." - Walter Harris, Gitxsan carver
• "When I get big I want to be an artist...so I can share my heart." - Grade 1 student
• "I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows." - Emily Carr, artist
• "Arts and cultural activities are at the heart of communities - they make communities more attractive places to live, they help bring a community to life, they define a community's unique characteristics, they attract tourists and they help communities compete economically around the world." - The Canada Council for the Arts
• "Arts in British Columbia enrich families and support careers, while infusing creative and economic energy into communities in every region of the province. We will continue to work with artists and cultural organizations through the BC Arts Council, our principal development and funding agency for the arts, to build on British Columbia's well-deserved international reputation for artistic excellence. " - Ida Chong, Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister
• "We need artists to help us come together and share our voices and build community around powerful issues concerning our roles in the world and our planet's survival." - Natasha Mayers, American Artist, Educator, Social Activist
• "My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back." - Louis Riel
• "Art is man's expression of his joy in labor" - Henry A. Kissinger
• "I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us--I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you" - Steve Soderbergh
• "Arts and cultural activities are at the heart of communities - they make communities more attractive places to live, they help bring a community to life, they define a community's unique characteristics, they attract tourists and they help communities compete economically around the world." - The Canada Council for the Arts
• "The purpose of art is the gradual lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Glenn Gould, musician
• "Those communities that are richest in their artistic tradition are also those that are the most progressive in their economic performance and most resilient and secure in their economic structure." - John Kenneth Galbraith, economist
• "If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams." - Yann Martel, author
• "...the arts epitomize, intensify and clarify the experience of beauty for us as nothing else can." - Lawren Harris, visual artist
• "'The arts' - as we've come to term them - are not a frill. They are the heart of the matter, because they are about our hearts, and our technological inventiveness is generated by our emotions, not by our minds. A society without the arts would have broken its mirror and cut out its heart. It would no longer be what we now recognize as human." - Margaret Atwood, author
• "It may be that those who do most, dream most." - Stephen Leacock, author
• "I cannot imagine life without art." - Kenojuak Ashevak, Inuit artist/carver
• "Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?" - Gabrielle Roy
• "The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation." - Michelle Obama
• "The arts, whatever they do, whenever they call us together, invite us to look at our fellow human being with generosity and curiosity." - Ben Cameron, Arts Administrator
• "Festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity, they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being. In short, they make cities better places to live." - David Binder
• "Community art is of and by the people of a place and culture, often facilitated by a professional artist. It reflects the values, concerns, and meaning of living in that place or culture." - Maryo Gard Ewell, Arts Administrator, Colorado
• "Art is our one true global language. It knows no nation, it favors no race, and it acknowledges no class. It speaks to our need to reveal, heal, and transform. It transcends our ordinary lives and lets us imagine what is possible." - Richard Kamler
• "I think artists can go to a level of vision that can often save us from a situation which seems to have no solution whatsoever." - Susan Griffin
• "When members of a society wish to secure that society's rich heritage they cherish their arts and respect their artists. The esteem with which we regard the multiple cultures offered in our country enhances our possibilities for healthy survival and continued social development." - Maya Angelou, poet
• "Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits." - Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 27, 1948
• "Fortunately art is a community effort -- a small but select community living in a spiritualized world endeavoring to interpret the wars and the solitudes of the flesh." - Allen Ginsberg, poet
• "In communities large and small, urban and rural, throughout British Columbia, local arts and cultural organizations do an amazing job year after year providing quality arts experiences for local families, residents and visitors. These organizations, as varied as the B.C. communities they serve so well, establish vibrant centres for the arts in local theatres and art galleries - as well as creating great arts programs and organizing wonderful festivals." - Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister Bill Bennett
• "We recognize the outstanding service provided by the arts and culture sector in every region of British Columbia." - Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister Bill Bennett
• "Arts are of the utmost importance to BC's cultural survival. Without the arts in Beautiful British Columbia, we will lack the creative vision needed to stand out amidst the beautiful surrounding scenery." - Sonny Assu, artist
• "Art allows possibilities for networking, creating, redefining, diversity... It has challenged me, provided me with many diverse experiences, taken me around the world and allowed me to share my experiences at home. I am enthusiastic about the potential that art can bring to the well-being of an individual as well as the health of a community." - Karen Hibbard, artist
• "Art is something to entertain people and make them think, from our beautiful ocean, mountains and forests of BC, art is something we all need, even if it is goofy sometimes. Something interesting about BC is that we have a great history in art, with all our amazing artists like Emily Carr and Bill Reid. From sad to happy, art is perfect for anything. It's good for expressing your emotions or explaining a story. Art is important for everything." - Eli Schreyer Allen, artist