The arts

The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices of <a href="/facts/Creativity/8sNGv9no">creative expression</a>, <a href="/facts/Storytelling/jKUsq4CW">storytelling</a>, and <a href="/facts/Cultural/c5JgMqpX">cultural</a> participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing, and being in an extensive range of <a href="/facts/List_of_art_media/6Ny7bhAL">media</a>. Both a dynamic and a characteristically constant feature of human life, the arts have developed into increasingly stylized and intricate forms. This is achieved through sustained and deliberate study, training, or theorizing within a particular tradition, generations, and even between <a href="/facts/Civilization/xvGpjDPj">civilizations</a>. The arts are a vehicle through which human beings cultivate distinct social, cultural, and individual identities while transmitting values, impressions, judgements, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life, and experiences across time and space.
Prominent examples of the arts include: <a href="/facts/Visual_arts/95RgxP8e">visual arts</a> (including <a href="/facts/Architecture/FccThs8G">architecture</a>, <a href="/facts/Ceramic_art/W7mmjJ3m">ceramics</a>, <a href="/facts/Drawing/DA7GfHNW">drawing</a>, <a href="/facts/Filmmaking/GL8DJm3W">filmmaking</a>, <a href="/facts/Painting/ygQ47K3b">painting</a>, <a href="/facts/Photography/ezLPT43M">photography</a>, and <a href="/facts/Sculpting/F01q8gtb">sculpting</a>), <a href="/facts/Literary_arts/CmUDxokU">literary arts</a> (including <a href="/facts/Fiction/p1AY3Xp4">fiction</a>, <a href="/facts/Drama/CGzetWvp">drama</a>, <a href="/facts/Poetry/ylGarm6p">poetry</a>, and <a href="/facts/Prose/cwoJry3a">prose</a>), and <a href="/facts/Performing_arts/997Eb6IL">performing arts</a> (including <a href="/facts/Dance/s9SeYNR9">dance</a>, <a href="/facts/Music/hDVP0xsQ">music</a>, and <a href="/facts/Theatre/Tq0mvBI8">theatre</a>). They can employ <a href="/facts/Skill/XKyAfgBg">skill</a> and <a href="/facts/Imagination/FD85g9cD">imagination</a> to produce <a href="/facts/Physical_object/WhqjK6xo">objects</a> and <a href="/facts/Performance/LoPW1hxp">performances</a>, convey insights and <a href="/facts/Experience/1LeXy1DW">experiences</a>, and construct new <a href="/facts/Natural_environment/NzGY148M">environments</a> and spaces.
The arts can refer to common, popular, or everyday practices as well as more sophisticated, systematic, or institutionalized ones. They can be discrete and self-contained or combine and interweave with other art forms, such as combining artwork with the written word in <a href="/facts/Comics/KeDK1haL">comics</a>. They can also develop or contribute to some particular aspect of a more complex art form, as in <a href="/facts/Cinematography/Umcgh4GC">cinematography</a>. By definition, the arts themselves are open to being continually redefined. The practice of <a href="/facts/Modern_art/8JrMbrVA">modern art</a>, for example, is a testament to the shifting boundaries, improvisation and experimentation, reflexive nature, and <a href="/facts/Self-criticism/U4p6btIj">self-criticism</a> or questioning that art and its conditions of production, reception, and possibility can undergo.
As both a means of developing capacities of attention and sensitivity and <a href="/facts/Art_for_art%27s_sake/Ty9DCRbn">ends in themselves</a>, the arts can simultaneously be a form of response to the world. It is a way to transform our responses and what we deem worthwhile goals or pursuits. From prehistoric <a href="/facts/Art_of_the_Upper_Paleolithic/ftGcpQJy">cave paintings</a>, to ancient and contemporary forms of <a href="/facts/Ritual/EIJngpmf">ritual</a>, to modern-day <a href="/facts/Film/wM3b9Kk3">films</a>, art has served to register, embody, and preserve our ever-shifting relationships with each other and the world.

The arts open-in-new

The arts