Small towns need art because art is what makes a community.

I never understood the importance of being a part of a community until I moved to college. I never grasped the concept of meeting people in the place you lived, building connections and creating a shared space to enjoy with others. Most importantly, I didn’t realize how crucial art is for communities.

When I reference art, I mean any type of creative outlet—music, physical media, theater, etc.—because creativity comes in all different shapes and forms. Art tells us stories that one may never have understood or felt before. Art tells us about our communities and what makes us strong. Art brings us together.

After immersing myself into creative outlets, such as encore magazine and participating in local art events, I have first-hand witnessed what I have lacked my whole life—community. Though everyone in the room is a stranger to me, sharing the space with people who enjoy arts is what fills that empty void. It is a challenge to face strangers at times, but they are still people at the end of the day.

To kick off Pride month, I attended my first ever film festival that highlighted an older generation of creative queers—Silver Pride Film Festival. While I was the youngest in the room, I realized how much love filled the little playhouse tucked away in downtown. Dancing, laughing, greetings and observers (such as me), made the small place feel grander than what it was. Mind you—these are older folks, people who have walked this Earth longer than me and who have stories to be told—I haven’t emersed myself into an environment such as this one. While waiting at the bar to order a drink before watching The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, an older gentleman stood next and started up a conversation about how this was his first time at a film festival. I shared with him that it was my first time as well. We carried on a conversation about how we were happy to see people come together to share their love for films and the arts. It made me realize that even at my young age, there are still people in this world experience things for the first time and it was brought to them through community.

Attendee's at Silver Pride dancing in the front of the theater before the movie starts.

A roommate of mine took up Samba dance classes and invited me to her final performance for the dance company that she was part of. Going in blind, I was expecting to find younger members dancing with an older crowd watching but, it was the opposite. Younger people made up the audience and older individuals made up the dancers. However, these people shared their love for dancing and displayed the skills that they have been practicing for weeks on end. It was interesting to note how the audience members mingled with one another but more specifically, how the older and younger dancers interacted between different sets. Their interactions were no different and they were there to enjoy their shared passion—dance. Dance brought a community of people together to share and admire their love for the art of dance.

Which brings me to another point—book clubs have broadened my insight to the importance of community. Books and literature, even though they are claimed to be a dying art due to the lack of literacy skills, bring people together in a way that it is hard to describe. Yes, we all read the same book but, how is it possible that every person read and interpreted it completely different? That is what opened my sense of community—sharing our experiences and stories through a piece of art. Even though there are tons of online spaces for people to discuss books, an in-person book club takes it to another level. The in-person interactions is what we lack in the modern times.

Music brings people together in such a way that some do not realize. I’m not speaking about mass stadiums with over 20,000 people—I’m speaking about small rooms and spaces where music is expressed. I’ve dabbled in a range of music venues—jazz in the local arts museum, one-woman and an acoustic guitar in a park, local bands playing in radio stations and raging guitars blaring in the parking lot of a local bar—but the people is what brings these venues alive. I have observed crowds of people sitting quietly, enjoying a saxophone filling the ears of listeners in a packed ballroom. I have observed mosh pits of individuals pushing, shoving and thrashing one another while Metallica fills 3^rd street in downtown Wilmington. All of this to say, I’ve met interesting people who come out to enjoy music and one another’s company. People come out to talk with one another.

The overwhelming feeling that the Wilmington community brings to me certainly stems from being from a small town (and being locked in my house for crucial development in my late teens and early 20’s due to a pandemic). Small towns with older folks make it difficult to keep people involved—it honestly drives people out. Another contributing factor to lack of community in small towns in the lack of third spaces for people to occupy. Especially today, in a time of the world being so digitized, third spaces are crucial. Communities are what helps keep small towns thriving and people socialized.

In a time where life is challenging, politics are heavy and the world feels unpredictable, it is important to engage in social activities but to build communities around it. This is a known fact since the dawn of time—people bring people together and art brings people together. Hell, Shakespeare knew that too. Why do you think he wasn’t a one playwright wonder?  

After COVID, it has been difficult to find communities of people, especially those interested in art. We have all became too comfortable sitting at home, scrolling on our phones, consuming AI slop, reading negative news (trust me, when the local newspaper in my hometown only covers negative news… that says something) and isolating ourselves. Seriously, it is because of that damn phone and I’m talking about everyone, not just the younger generation. The lack of communities is also driving a wedge between everyone socially. We are used to social media where if someone has a differing opinion or belief, we can scroll or block it. However, when faced with different opinions and ideas in real life, it allows for us to sit, listen, question and understand where others are coming from. Seriously, the amount of hug boxing I see online is astronomically stupid and, in the nicest way, some of you need to go outside. We as a society lack critical engagement with one another that makes us united and whole. How do you think some of the smartest individuals become successful? They have communities of people that they thrive in.

We need more of that. We always need the arts. We always need communities.