When we think about art, many of us will think about sketches, paintings, and digital art. But we know that there’s more kinds of art than just these three. There’s sculpting, photography, animation, and many more that we actually know of, but never think so much about.

So, what should be considered art? Well, to answer this question, we need to think about what the definition of “art” is. Oxford Languages defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination”. So that would mean anything that shows a human has used their creativity and imagination to create it, is art. So sure, you could say anything a human has created is art, but wouldn’t that mean even an everyday object–like a chair or table–is art?

Well to narrow it down to fit our regular, everyday description of art, we could say that the first kind of a piece–or the first piece itself– is art. Say for example, the Cesca chair. The chair was a breakthrough in design, anyone who sat on it felt as if they were sitting on air. This chair has been continuously used for close to 100 years now, showing just how popular it is. This piece is especially art because while it was made to be used regularly, it was also made to be aesthetically pleasing.

I created a poll and asked the poll takers to determine which of the following options are and aren’t art, here are the results:

You may notice that the options we don’t normally see relating to art are the options that have been voted the most. For example, writing can’t be art right? It’s words, not something visually appealing. Though that may be true, it’s what the words contain that make it art. It takes skill and an imagination to create a creative writing piece.

Okay but, how do we determine what is and what isn’t art when it comes to different types of activities? Like, what about photography, dancing, music? Well, if a skill requires a great amount of creativity to produce something, then that should mean that something is art.

We all have at least a little artistic ability in ourselves.