A Theory of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A Theory of Art - Essay Example Art is an important part of the life experience as it evokes feelings and emotions that attach themselves to the work in question and portrays the meaning of our culture. Yet, society continues to struggle with the definition of art. Art defies description; we may know it when we see it, but we can not define it as it is too complex, varied, and prone to individual subjectivity. To define art, it is first necessary to define where the art is at. The art may be the act of its production, the end result, or the sensation that the viewer experiences from the encounter. To be considered art, all three components must be consciously involved in its production. As an example, if a paint can inadvertently spills onto a canvas, it is not art even if it is beautiful. There was no action on the part of the artist that would elevate an accidental spill to the level of art. Likewise, if the art produces no sensation in the viewer, such as a bottle of urine, then the art has no artistic content no matter how much time and effort the artist spent. Allowing a work to be labelled 'art' that does not meet these requirements results in the flood of mediocrity, and worse, that has recently come to the attention of the popular media. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres described these types of works in the 18th century as, "banality, which is a public scourge, which afflicts taste a nd burdens the administration, fruitlessly absorbing resources, it would be best to abandon exhibitions; to declare boldly that only monumental painting be encouraged" (cited in Harrison, Wood, & Gaiger, 1998, p.469). Ignoring this important aspect of art has been responsible for inappropriate bodily fluids being labelled and accepted as mainstream art. The standard definition of art includes the traditional view that artwork is characterized by the possession of representational properties, expressive properties, or formal properties (Adajian, 2007). This definition also would include many items that are not art and were never intended to be art. A shopping list would not be considered art, yet may qualify under this generic definition. This simplistic set of requirements is not complete enough and is too broad to be of any value. While it may describe some objects and acts that are not art, it stops far short of defining what art is. To accommodate and update this traditional definition, recent decades have seen a surge of theories and movements designed to justify new and unusual art forms.Any theory or movement that adequately defines art and aestheticism would be necessarily narrow and exclusionary. While some schools of art, such as the Dada movement believes that anything can be art, other movements, such as minimalism, belie ve that nothing is art. These extreme positions, in regards to the definition of art, only serve to include every worldly endeavour as artistically worthwhile, but do little to help define art. In fact, these broad, nihilistic, and inclusive movements dilute art's purpose, meaning, and cultural value. Art needs to be defined within a set of boundaries that are acceptable by cognitive recognition and reflect a sense of values. This does not imply that the values need to adhere to any preconceived framework of acceptability. While racism may be an unacceptable human value, its portrayal could serve

Microfinance Institutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Microfinance Institutions - Essay Example Between the 1950s and the 70s, governments and donors used to channel funds to the poor communities for development through rural credit programmes, with most of these funds being subsidised. The results were high loan default rates and high loses that made it impossible to reach the targeted rural poor households (Anyanwu, 2004). In the early 1980s, the history of microfinance institutions gained shape as more of these institutions sprouted in developing countries. The Grameen Bank was among the first pioneers to offer small loans and savings services to clients on a large scale with considerable profit margins. These banks did not have any subsidies, they had highly sustainable businesses and were not commercially funded; they also had a wide outreach in such rural areas (Robinson, 2001). The difference between these institutions and the credit programs rolled by governments in the 50s and 60s was that the new institutions had more emphasis on repayment of credits, charged some int erests to cater for the costs of credit delivery and had more attention on customers in the informal sectors (Jegede, kehinde & Ahmed, 2011). In the early 1990s, there was increased growth of MFIs in the number of developed institutions initiated and outreach to more customers. The 90s was the microfinance decade, with attention changing from provision of microcredit to the informal sectors to provision of more services such as savings and pensions that the poor demanded, and which led to the name microfinance institutions (Jegede, kehinde & Ahmed, 2011). Doubts on their effectiveness Though microfinance institutions were believed to benefit the poor, there are ranging debates on the effectiveness of such institutions, with major doubts on their effectiveness in eradicating poverty among rural communities. Hulme & Mosley (1996) in a study on the effectiveness of microfinance institutions observed that the poor households in most cases do not benefit from these institutions (those be low the poverty line). The institutions usually benefit those way above the poverty line, defeating the purpose of microfinance institutions in poverty reduction. Most poor individuals according to this study but with significant starting incomes, when given such microcredits had much less growth in incomes obtained compared to the groups that did not receive the microcredits. In other words, the study indicated that credit is not the only factor to be considered in income generation, but other factors such as entrepreneurial skills have to be considered. Karnani (2007) further concurs that most people do not have the skills, visions, creativity and the persistence necessary in entrepreneurship. According to Karnani, in more developed countries, over 90% of people with incomes are in employed labour and not in entrepreneurship. This suggests that it is a simplistic assumption to offer credit facilities to the poor to start successful businesses. Moreover Pollin (2007) asserts that s mall business run by the poor cannot be successful by the mere fact that they have more opportunities to obtain such credit to initiate them. There are other factors that are pertinent and which are addressed in microcredit provision in poor areas. These include roads, affordable transport to move produce and market support to identify and target customers, which is mostly ignored in such efforts (Pollin, 2007). Daley-Harris (2007) on the same note remarked that microfinance cannot be the solution to global poverty levels, and neither can education, economic growth or proper educational facilities. In other words, it is not possible to use a single intervention to address poverty across the