By GINNY VAN ALYEA
 

CGN is proud to be a resource to the arts community and its supporters during this time. On chicagogallerynews.com we, and all our galleries, artists, auction houses, and art services are open for business.

So much else - from spring art fairs to summer exhibitions – has already been cancelled, postponed or remains in limbo. CGN and our partner galleries and art spaces all need your support and attention now more than ever. Stay with us. Keep up your interest and investment in art. Behind all of it are kind, creative, hard working, passionate people. We are a community.

We say CGN is a cheerleader of the arts. The general points about why it’s good for individuals to buy art have long been because you love it, because it supports an artist, because it makes a statement, because it’s unique. But more than that, behind that virtual image is something you can touch and feel and experience. It's unlike almost any other thing you can buy, bring home and live with. 

I once wrote about how art can save lives (it's written on a pin I have above my desk in my office, which I miss right now). An artist’s view of the world, seen and experienced in person through a constructed object, a performance or a concept, can be a powerful learning resource as well as a lens through which to view history or what is happening right now. A work of art can memorialize a tragedy, and it can preserve beauty; it can provide a vehicle for participating in a larger community and also connect with the past.

In the fall 2018 issue of CGN artist Suellen Rocca, who passed away last week, shared her experiences with us of working with young children in museums as well as public schools. Observing the world around her informs her own art and has allowed her to help others think creatively. Art of the past also offers an ongoing and critical connection: "I believe—I’m sure many other artists do too—when an artist looks at a work of art from any period or culture and feels a connection with it, is drawn to it, it becomes a part of them and comes out in a very personal way." 

My message still to anyone who may be able to buy a work of art right now, in these seemingly worst of times, is to reconsider why art is what is left behind once we are gone or after what surely seemed like total destruction. Art that survives the ages has the timeless ability to connect us to someone, some thing, some time. 

To buy a work of art is to invest in an artist’s unique talent and be able to admire and learn from it everyday. 

Art is something that can never really be cancelled.