Culture and art (topic)

Culture and art

Culture and art are integral parts of the everyday life of people. They add aesthetic value to our lives, enrich our mind and please our senses. Culture and cultural life can be represented by music, literature, fine arts, art exhibitions and museum exhibits, by going to the cinema, theatre and concerts. Music can be someone’s hobby, profession or a part of the lifestyle. If you like classical music, you can enjoy a concert of a philharmonic orchestra in a concert hall or attend a festival. Opera lovers can chose from a list of opera performances in a theatre or opera house. Fans of different music styles - pop, rock, jazz, blues or country can enjoy the music at music festivals, concerts or simply listen to CDs. There are also people, who like folklore music. Folklore groups dressed in traditional costumes dance at folklore festivals from which the most famous is the one held in July in Východná.

Going to the cinema is an important part of youth culture in today’s society. Young people love spending their free time with their friends and the cinema offers them that. After the film, they enjoy talking about the plot, cast and scenes they liked most over their favourite pizza.

Going to the theatre is a social event for most people. Keen theatregoers, rarely teenagers or younger ones, can enjoy various types of theatre performances and usually choose the performance they want to see according to its director and cast.

Those who like fine art enjoy going to art galleries to see exhibitions of classical or modern art that are held all year round. There are not many people who are keen on going to galleries these days, especially among teenagers. However, museums seem to be full of visitors as people seem to like to learn about the history of their region or country.

How rich your cultural life is depends on both your interests and hobbies, as well as where you live. If you live in a large town, you have a good choice as cultural facilities are plentiful. There are several cinemas, in a large town you can find one or two theatres, many galleries, museums, concerts and festivals of different genres are held there. All you need to do is to decide where you’d like to go or what you’d like to see or sometimes you might need to buy a ticket in advance. That’s all.

If you live in a small town or village, you don’t have such a good choice as there aren’t many cultural facilities. The only cultural event is a disco or ball which are held on special occasions several times a year. When people living in a village want to see a good film or theatre performance, they have to go to the nearest town which can be expensive and time consuming. The only choice for them is television, videos and possibly DVDs which are a bit cheaper and more convenient.

Cultural events in the countryside are not that frequent. People who live in villages all their lives prefer gardening, visiting friends or watching TV. Many inhabitants of bigger cities are moving to villages, trying to get away from the busy city life. Those moving not too far from the city can still enjoy the cultural life the city offers.

Culture and art challenge your imagination, influence you positively, bring joy to life, make your life more interesting and that’s why we should enjoy it at least from time to time no matter where we live.

Culture  is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:

• Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
• An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
• The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group

Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

„Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.“ _{Pablo Picasso}

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, whereas disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. This conception changed during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". Generally, art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions.

Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface using dry media such as graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman.

Filmmaking is the process of making a motion-picture, from an initial conception and research, through scriptwriting, shooting and recording, animation or other special effects, editing, sound and music work and finally distribution to an audience; it refers broadly to the creation of all types of films, embracing documentary, strains of theatre and literature in film, and poetic or experimental practices, and is often used to refer to video-based processes as well.

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art. Historically, the five greater fine arts were painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry, with minor arts including drama and dancing. Today, the fine arts commonly include the visual art and performing art forms, such as painting, sculpture, collage/assemblage, installation, calligraphy, music, dance, theatre, architecture, film, photography, conceptual art, and printmaking. However, in some institutes of learning or in museums fine art, and frequently the term fine arts as well, are associated exclusively with visual art forms.

Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.

Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known as cameras.

Plastic arts is a term, now largely forgotten, encompassing art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by moulding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. The term has also been applied to all the visual (non-literary, non-musical) arts.

Printmaking is creating for artistic purposes an image on a matrix which is then transferred to a two-dimensional (flat) surface by means of ink (or another form of pigmentation). Except in the case of a monotype, the same matrix can be used to produce many examples of the print. Historically, the major techniques (also called media) involved are woodcut, line engraving, etching, lithography, and screenprinting (serigraphy, silkscreening) but there are many others, including modern digital techniques. Normally the surface upon which the print is printed is paper, but there are exceptions, from cloth and vellum to modern materials. Prints in the Western tradition produced before about 1830 are known as old master prints. There are other major printmaking traditions, especially that of Japan (ukiyo-e).

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone such as marble - or metal, glass, or wood. Softer ("plastic") materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light.

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts (photography, video, and filmmaking) and architecture. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of the visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.

Culture places/ Places of art

The Colosseum, is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering.

The Colosseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events. The shows, called munera, were always given by private individuals rather than the state. They had a strong religious element but were also demonstrations of power and family prestige, and were immensely popular with the population. Another popular type of show was the animal hunt, or venatio. This utilized a great variety of wild beasts, mainly imported from Africa and the Middle East, and included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, aurochs, wisents, barbary lions, panthers, leopards, bears, caspian tigers, crocodiles and ostriches. Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings. Such events were occasionally on a huge scale; Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in Dacia in 107 with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.

The Colosseum today is now a major tourist attraction in Rome. The Colosseum is also the site of Roman Catholic ceremonies in the 20th and 21st centuries. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI leads the Stations of the Cross called the Scriptural Way of the Cross (which calls for more meditation) at the Colosseumon Good Fridays.

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, and renovation of the lagoon, walkways, and a seismic retrofit were completed in early 2009.

It remains a popular attraction for tourists and locals, and is a favorite location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and such an icon that a miniature replica of it was built in Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim.

Museum Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London. Marie Tussaud, was born Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761–1850) in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling.

Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous people she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris. Following the doctor's death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to François Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show: Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she went to London having accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits. As a result of the Franco-British war, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831 she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street between Dorset Street and King Street),[6] which later featured in the Druce-Portland case sequence of trials of 1898-1907. This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum.

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine.Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces.

Collections:

• Egyptian antiquities-Holdings include art, papyrus scrolls, mummies, tools, clothing, jewelry, games, musical instruments, and weapons.
• Near Eastern antiquities-The museum contains exhibits from Sumer and the city of Akkad, with monuments such as the Prince of Lagash's Stele, Naram-Sin, King of Akkad,Code of Hammurabi..
• Greek, Etruscan, and Roman-The collection spans from the Cycladic period to the decline of the Roman Empire.
• Islamic art-These exhibits, comprising ceramics, glass, metalware, wood, ivory, carpet, textiles, and miniatures
• Sculpture-The collection's overview of French sculpture contains Romanesque works such as the 11th century Daniel in the Lions' Den and the 12th century Virgin of Auvergne. In the 16th century, Renaissance influence caused French sculpture to become more restrained, as seen in Jean Goujon's bas-reliefs, and Germain Pilon's Descent from the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. The 17th and 18th centuries are represented by Étienne Maurice Falconet's Woman Bathing and Amour menaçant and François Anguier's obelisks. Neoclassical works includes Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss
• Decorative arts
• Painting- with St. Anne, St. John the Baptist, and Madonna of the Rocks. Caravaggio is represented by The Fortune Teller and Death of the Virgin. From 16th century Venice, the Louvre displays Titian's Le Concert Champetre, The Entombment and The Crowning with Thorns.
• Prints and drawings

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957. Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour, in 2003. There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent. The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. It is one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world. Contrary to its name, the building houses multiple performance venues. As one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people, the Sydney Opera House provides a venue for many performing arts companies including the four key resident companies Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and presents a wide range of productions on its own account. It is also one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, with more than seven million people visiting the site each year, 300,000 of whom take a guided tour.

The Sydney Opera House is administered by the Sydney Opera House Trust, under the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts.

Statue of Liberty

„Liberty Enlightening the World”

Statue of liberty is a statue on USA in New York. It is a symbol of freedom and democracy. The statue is 46 meters high, with 47-meter pedestal is thus torches peak of 93 m above the ground. The left hand holds a statue representing the board's declaration of independence, which is the inscription JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of independence). Even the crowns with seven rays are the symbol of freedom, which radiate across the seven seas and seven continents. Statue of Liberty recalls the friendship and aid granted by France to American settlers in their struggle for independence from Britain. The French like the Statue of Liberty to express sympathy for the new republic suffered the Atlantic Ocean. The statue stands on the island from New York since 1886. Today there are less copies of it in Paris as a reminder of its French origin. The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. The statue was closed for renovation for much of 1938. In the early 1980s, it was found to have deteriorated to such an extent that a major restoration was required. While the statue was closed from 1984 to 1986, the torch and a large part of the internal structure were replaced. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was closed for reasons of safety and security; the pedestal reopened in 2004 and the statue in 2009, with limits on the number of visitors allowed to ascend to the crown. The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed beginning on October 29, 2011 for up to a year, so that a secondary staircase and other safety features can be installed; Liberty Island remains open. Public access to the balcony surrounding the torch has been barred for safety reasons since 1916.

Ashley Michele Greene (born February 21, 1987) is an American actress and model, best known for playing Alice Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight novels.

Bonnie Francesca Wright (born 17 February 1991) is a British actress and fashion model. She is best known for playing Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter film series.

Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, performer, and the lead vocalist of the band Paramore. Instruments :Vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, piano. She is my favourite singer.

My favourite writer is J. K. Rowling, she is British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated its assets at 576 million pounds, making it one of dollar billionaires as the very first writer, Rowling is also the richest woman in the UK, even before Queen Elizabeth II.

My second favourite writer is Stephanie Meyer. Stephenie Meyer is an American author known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.

Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente Scherzinger (born June 29, 1978) is an American singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Pussycat Dolls.

Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Later, he landed the leading role of Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of the Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer, and came to worldwide fame.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian R&B recording artist.