I feel the importance of the arts is its impact. Animated movies like Inside Out from Pixar helped me cope with my own struggle with moving states the same year as the movie's release. Music evokes a wide range of emotions and connects people together. Connections of varying degrees can be made from artwork and creativity. From writing and illustrating a story with a friend, to having an amazing mentor in new media art as a Ph.D. student, the opportunities are endless. Art is all around us. It makes people wonder, push their limits, and think outside the box. For instance, my installation art proposal relating to emotions, colors, and audience engagement is in part a result of my own wonder as to, "What if I made my idea a reality? How would that look realistically? And, what would I want the audience's interaction with the piece, as well as the impact on them to look like?"

Art can be as simple or complex as the audience chooses to make it. I have a hard time deciding whether I like artwork that is open to interpretation, or artwork that is to-the-point. Artwork that is open to interpretation allows the audience to explore their thoughts and emotions from an artwork. One can sit and stare and compare analysis as long as they wish, but the conclusion they do or do not come to is up to them. On the other hand, Artwork that has a clear message, can make the audience more aware of something, or bring more understanding to a topic at hand. An example of this is Angry Earth on Instagram. Although simple cartoons, the works posted online raise awareness and call people to act on the crisis at hand.

Creativity is important because it allows one to learn in pursuit of your goals. Creativity leads to ideas, which leads to making those ideas into realities. In doing so, one goes through trial and error; people figure out where they went wrong on a given project, and with the help of creativity, brainstorm new ways to continue in place of where they failed. Creativity inspires art to be manifested. It even inspires others' creativity. For example, discussing with a friend the different ways they could both developed their art pieces: things to add, ways it could evolve, what if it was approached from a different perspective, channeling a specific art style, or listening to a certain genre to keep the creativity and determination flowing.

Artwork by Meagan Skolnick