This is the second story in a series I’m doing on how religions create meaning, and how we can do the same for work. Last week was the introduction, this week I’m covering Art, next week I’ll look at Community. If you love this, consider subscribing or sharing it with a friend ✌🏻
🕌 Patrons of the arts
“Creating art is about growing the world and increasing its reach” - Nick Cave.
Art has been an essential tool in the kit of religions for thousands of years.
From the famous frescos in Italy to Buddha’s giant statues in China or Sri Lanka, religions have been great patrons of the arts. But why?
Religions present to the world complex ideas about morality, faith, the human condition, and so much more. These are heady topics and difficult to grasp or imagine through words alone. With art, it is possible to present complex ideas in beautiful and seductive ways. Art has the power to emotionally connect with people in ways that a sermon or a text can not.
Religions have used art to express ideas, bring history to life, persuade, and add richness and depth to their intoxicating, emotionally appealing and seductive stories.
Religions are chiefly concerned with convincing people to care about ideas, and art is a powerful and provocative medium.
👨🏻🎨 Art is too important to leave to the professionals
Art gives us the means to examine and understand the world. It gives us a visual language that makes it possible to capture a flower’s beauty or the love you feel for a friend. What’s more, art is subjective, so each person can experience it in a distinct and unique way.
Art is in the every day, and we experience art and participate in it in many settings, not just in white box art galleries or theatres.
Art is not just for artists. Originally the word “art” was a verb meaning “to put things together”. Viewed in this context, every one of us engages in the creation of art every day. Did you build a slide deck today? Art. Did you put an outfit together this morning? Art. Cook a meal and arrange it on a plate? Art.
“Art, like sex, is too important to leave to the professionals — too important because of the delight and satisfaction it provides, and too important because of its role in creating each person’s future.” - Eric Booth
🎭 Make work fun, not boring
If art is essential and so inextricably linked to rich and meaningful experiences, why don’t we value it in the context of work? If we spend most of our time on this earth working, why shouldn’t we seek to make work more meaningful?
When I first started working at Blackbird, our logo was a black and white bird that cost $100 on 99 Designs. Think about that for a second. Blackbird was only a few years old, but the sacrifices our founders had made already were significant. Their vision for Blackbird and what we could achieve was immense. Niki and Rick had poured everything into Blackbird and at substantial personal risk. We were funding the next generation of startups, each of which had visions and were trying to bring about change in the world.
Despite this, the iconography we chose to express all of this was an afterthought, which cost us $100.
Another example - we were running a tech conference called The Sunrise. It was a 600 capacity event designed to inspire the next generation of Australian founders. The mission was big, and it took months to pull it all together. The artwork we made should have been worthy of the mission and the work we put in. This is what we settled on:
😍 Beautiful and seductive
Art is in the every day, and by bringing it to the front of the work you do, you can make life more meaningful. At Blackbird, our internal engagement surveys are in the mid-’90s, and the emphasis we put on art is a contributing factor. We make beautiful things worthy of our mission and the time we are all putting towards achieving it.
Through art, it is possible to present complex ideas in beautiful and seductive ways. You can make beautiful things that are a joy to experience, and in this, you can add depth to our experience of work that might otherwise be unattainable.
In closing, I’ll leave you with some of the things we have made over the years. How lovely are they? Next up in this series, I’m going to look at Community.