I most definitely think that art and museums can create social cohesion. Art is so popular and is something that always creates conversations. Art creates questions, causing people to talk to others about it, asking each other how they interpret it. Martha’s goal was to get her story out, she wanted to let people know what she was going through. And how it wasn’t easy at all. And within that, she wanted to let other women that were going through the same thing feel at home, and not feel out of placed or feel like they shouldn’t be feeling the way they do. Martha wrote all her stories and experiences in the form of art. The readings “Listen” and “Going Home” is all about learning how to write in your own way. Martha really expresses that. The definition of social cohesion is to link people together with conversations and connections. That’s what Martha’s art is doing. She’s creating conversations with not only the art of her books and how she made them but also with the story in the book. The book she wrote with the voices of the five doctors was incredible. For someone that has never had to have any sort of conversation with a doctor, it was eye-opening. My heart hurts for her and some of the things that she was told. Doctors deal with so many patients every day, all of them hearing pretty much the same thing. The doctors start to lose sympathy. They forget that these people are hearing the heart drenching words coming out of their mouth for the first time, and it’s about to alter their lives for the rest of their lives. Nothing that the doctors said to Martha in the books was necessarily rude or mean, it’s more of the way that Martha interpreted it or how they said it. I do believe social cohesion can be created from art and museums.
