April 15, 2025

Celebrate World Art Day: Honoring Creativity, Community, and Culture

By Elizabeth Snell

Four dancers wearing tan shirts and pants with white caps in a movement with their right arm up and a dramatic green background behind them. They are dancing in socks on a stage with musicians visible in the background.

Each year on April 15, World Art Day invites people around the globe to recognize the vital role the arts play in shaping our societies, our economies, and our everyday lives. Established by the International Association of Art, this international celebration—timed to coincide with Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday—serves as a reminder that creative expression transcends borders and builds bridges between cultures.

In the United States and around the world, World Art Day is a chance to highlight the impact of the arts not only on individual well-being but also on community resilience, innovation, and economic vitality.

As we mark this global occasion, here are just a few of the many reasons to celebrate the arts today and every day:

Art builds community well-being.

A woman's hands at a sewing machine working with a floral print fabric of reds, golds, and brown colors.

CHAT Women’s Sewing Circle

Art fuels local economies.

Young man with glasses wearing a jean jacket and beanie hat plays a base instrument outdoors with trees behind him.

Artist INC Facilitator Colin McLaughlin. Photo by Amanda Julia Steinbeck

Art commemorates our past.

Black and white photo of a woman in the 1950s in formal attire singing onstage.

ExhibitsUSA exhibition Shutter and Sound: The Jazz Photography of Bob Willoughby. Bob Willoughby, Billie Holliday performing at the Tiffany Club, Los Angeles, CA, 1950; Courtesy of Elliott Gallery. © The Bob Willoughby Photo Archive.

Art connects us. Art heals.

Four men and women in military uniform walk towards the audience onstage in a theatrical production with dramatic lighting.

2024 NEA Creative Forces grant recipient BLIXT Photo by Jenny Gegg Photography

Art seeds innovation.

FY23 Artistic Innovations grant recipient Steve Snell. Video still courtesy of Steve Snell.

Art brings new ideas to life.

A large mural that depicts women and the Statue of Liberty with the words Votes for Women on a historical building's exterior wall.

FY21 Artistic Innovations grant recipient Erika Nelson.

Art also adds to our US economy and the livelihood of our communities:

$1.2 trillion total contribution (4.2% GDP)
(Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, National Endowment for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis)
$36.8 billion trade surplus
Up from $21.5 billion between 2022 and 2023
$29.1 billion in tax revenue to local, state, and federal governments
(Arts and Economic Prosperity 6, Americans for the Arts)

Young girl with a dress looks at a large photograph of a bug in an art gallery.

ExhibitsUSA exhibition Small Wonders: Insects In Focus at the Chelsea District Library.

Take a moment today to celebrate the arts—whether by creating something of your own, visiting a local gallery, supporting a working artist, or simply pausing to appreciate something beautiful around you.

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Header photography: FY24 Artistic Innovations Grant Recipient NobleMotion Dance. Photo by Lynn Lane