What do you think is best way forward in making fine art more exciting and accessible to the general public?

I think that part of the problem is that people have come to associate art with specifically modern & contemporary art of certain strains or schools which are indeed abstract and obtuse. If we move away from the modernist art of the 1950s-70s and its inheritors, and focus on historical/traditional art that is more plainly beautiful, impressive, and/or awe-inspiring, and/or contemporary works that make very clear their cultural referents and political messages, we may find greater success in getting people interested and engaged. An artist like Thomas Cole, to pluck just one name out, may be old hat among artists, but for the uninitiated, the average person on the street, his works are plainly beautiful and impressive, and can help viewers realize that there is more to art than Rauschenberg & Pollock, and that art can indeed be accessible, and can evoke great questions without being off-puttingly obtuse. Similarly, there are plenty of contemporary artists whose works are plain and clear in their cultural referents and political messages. The Japanese artist Aida Makoto, though maybe not the most ideal example, does use anime schoolgirls and other pop culture motifs in his images, which are plainly beautiful and fun, even as they also contain political messages about the representation of women in our culture, about nationalisms, etc.

Well, Now I'm a little bit more confident answering this   First of all, I've to say, there's a lot of work out there that you can consider as Fine art rigth now, and It's inevitable no to show some works just to ilustrate my point:: You got somebody like Omar Ortiz, "Hyper realism" painting Next you can consider the work of Jeff Koons Rose Marasco, some "pin-hole" Photographs Esteban Ocampo Giraldo , Visual artist : And finally some work form ETAM Cru, graffiti colective : Just to name a very few artists, who I deeply consider as "Fine Art" ,and besides, who are actually alive, and working right now, so it can fit in " modern and contemporary art" I guess.   Now, let me ask you something to whoever read this, when you gave a look at these works, do you find a link between them ? (They're obviously beautiful and outstanding but besides that...) Because I can't find it so easily, and that's one of the major problems that you can came across when you try to encourage people to estimate art, What kind of art I want others to like ? And if the person you are trying to get into art doesn't like what you actually does, It's like teaching pure math to a musician.   And you can find one problem that really puts art in a very difficult situation we live now in the "Ephemeral Culture", the internet and the network make everything last a minute if you're not good enough and not enough      So There's not a guide to make people excited with art, because It's always being a theme which is very subjective.   What I propose I could not be more agree with Bory Lee when he writes "stay excited yourself" , that's the main goal. You got the right to be disappointed with some things, but keep searching until you find yourself in love again. Try to give other people motivation trough "fast-art" always carry (on your smartphone, tablet, pc, etc) some diverse piece of  fine art, something you consider other people can find interesting and beautiful,  (Don't get weird but always try to talk about art, a little bit. ) ( I'll put this as an option because It could be much more of a personal way to do it : When you' have the people into it you just need to take the artists they specially likes, and go backwards, what I mean is talking about the inspiration that the artist had when he was doing his work (You'll get anyone from XXI Century , back to the Renaissance with Titian, Michelangelo, and go forward then with Velásquez and Goya, and keep going, there's to many artists once you start,  that slowly will crave in your listener mind,( You can use prhases such as "And He was thinking in the Guernica of Picasso when he was doing this ... or the Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette from renoir)  and then Voilà!  you got somebody into art. ) Try to spread art trough your networks, help other people spreading their work. Support local education programs, (I'm not an artist nor studing art history or art, wich is a requierement to teach other people ) go and inscribe yourself as a teacher. Kids need it. I know you are asking for much more in the question, but I'll limitate my answer to this because I think this is what you mainly were looking for.

Education, education, education.  Kids learn culture, and the value of cultural expression, in school and in their families.  If it is supported, prioritized, and nurtured there, the demand for fine art will be there as adults.  (I grew up in an artist household.) Take the sport of hockey as an example.  It is a sport played on ice, really only suitable for neighborhood play in Canada and the very northern edge of US states.  Yet there are now NHL teams in places like Florida and Arizona. How did this happen?  Because of strategic efforts of the NHL to support youth hockey leagues, from 5 years old through high school, with real resources, so that kids would learn to skate and enjoy the sport in as much of the country as possible.  As a result, there is a demand to see pro hockey teams and share that with kids as adults.  Art is the same way.  If it is not supported in schools and with real resources and time, demand for fine art won't increase.

Fine art should be exhibited in more public spaces.  Exposure piques interest.  An interested, informed public will demand fine art.

The best way to make fine art more exciting and accessible to the public?  Simple: take the art to them.  By reaching people at home or work, through art salon type events, enables physical and mental interaction with art.  Thus, you are reminded that it exists, in various wonderful forms, some of which you should probably bring into your life permanently.

Oh, this is such a BIG topic!  Brian is so right. More people have access to, and enjoy art today than ever before in human history, so our lamentations shouldn't be excessive. Is it as much as we who love art would like? Of course not. We won't be happy until art is everywhere, and all people understand that they have creativity coursing through their veins as a natural component of their humanity. But that could take awhile. Meanwhile, what could improve things? Some radical thoughts: 1. Abandon the quest for taxpayers to support art in the schools. Focus instead on promoting and integrating the arts (visual art, music, dance, etc.) as  teaching tools for core curriculum (science, math, history, etc).  The arts are languages. When languages are lost for more than 3 generations - as the arts now have been in our schools - they are gone. Teachers don't know them anymore. If we reintegrate them into the curriculum, they will be relearned, and THEN, in a generation or two, it will be a small step back to art classes, because the vocabulary will be re-established. Arts integation increases test scores, attendance, myriad things, so it's do-able and there are projects all over the country that provide the stats for taxpayers. 2. Reconceptualize contemporary art museums as normal, all day gathering places. Put furniture in them, (and I don't mean benches),  and - gasp! - things like chess boards. Maybe even some big kid's toys. Make them places to BE WITH art, not just look at it, and where, in at least some spaces, sound - even noise,  is OK. 3.  Work on two kinds of elitism and condescension that are rife in the art world. The condescension from art elitists that says that if "common folk" like it, it can't be any good, and the condescension from poor artists  and art lovers that says that if "rich people" pay a ton of money for a painting, that is somehow "ridiculous" and stupid and "wrong".  Both of these attitudes are narrow and counterproductive.  People are going to like whatever they like based on their backgrounds and all the myriad things that go into developing taste. Sometimes that changes. It's none of anyone's business to judge that. It is what makes the huge, wonderful multifaceted artworld go round. So get over it, art snobs!  The affluent and powerful have always paid top dollar for art that makes them feel like they have acquired (or sponsored) something really special, so they can feel special - Sistine Chapel, anyone? Maybe if you or I had enough money, that is how we would choose to spend it too. So get over it, art people! 4.  Making art with the intention of self-expression instead of for some kind of patron or specific audience is a really recent phenomenon in art....basically since the camera usurped artist's gigs as portraitists, illustrators and etc. So a lot of artists have become more than a bit carried away on the self-expression scale and moved a loooooooong way toward self-involvement. If artists thought about artmaking in the more traditional sense - as communication rather than self-expression (since it is, after all, a language) this would. I believe, have a subtle, but significant effect on their work, and help to heal many of the wounds between artist and society. (PS - don't throw too many bricks,people, I painted professionally, too..., so this isn't just coming from "outside") I know how radical these ideas are, and maybe impossible, but I believe they would help significantly..... IMHO....

I was wondering the same thing while studying Fine Arts. I used to study painting, so seeing that none of the people I knew was hanging paintings on their walls worried me. Instead everybody put up posters or photographs or stuff cut out of magazines. I believe that @Brian Fey nails it when he says: "People have been making art for thousands of years before the "art world" made an "art world" too fancy for the people." And people still do nowadays. Just look at street art, illustration and in great measure design as well. People pour their heart and soul into it, and they sell it at accessible prices. Oh! And it seems the general public is quite excited about their work too! I came to the conclusion that the Art you usually find in museums and galleries is elitist by design. It is created in order to be appreciated by an intellectual elite and in order to be purchased by an economic elite. In fact often the Art World itself perceives too much interest of the general public as something suspicious. EDIT: I just stumbled over this and think it is a really good idea to promote art and making art yourself: the lasercat project: http://vimeo.com/97368421

I'll come back to my answer later again. It's a topic close to my heart too and I don't have much time now or can put my thoughts together properly. BUT I know many people find art either pretentious, or they don't get it so they avoid it, they don't know what is it, why is it and how come it's often so outrageously expensive. Or why good artists are ignored. I think the same about classical music as I do about fine art. It's not that hard to listen to, you don't have to like everything! It comes from so many different centuries. Exhibitions should be a lot more accessible and open. As with classical concerts people often don't go because they are not quite sure what to do or expect. How to behave. And it's similar with art exhibitions. You can feel so out of place there. And it could be so enjoyable. For anyone. There are no special requirements, you can go see what you want, just like with films in cinema or food in a restaurant. Try what you like. When did music, art and theatre become so elitist? Shakespeare wrote and performed for the masses, Mozart wrote music and operas that everyone loved and the art that is now hanging in a gallery was in a church before and the town hall. Nothing elitist about that. Yes, only the rich could afford to commission something and even now you can't really afford to buy what you might like but you can still go and look at it. Also, I don't think art is self explanatory as some people think. It's much easier to 'get it' when you know something about how and why and by whom it was created. I know artists often don't like to talk too much about it but any information can be useful and helpful. Something has to be done. But there's no one thing to do...the attitude towards arts has to change.

This is one of my answers from another post, but I've amended it to fit here: I think Massmiliano Gioni (recent artistic director of the Venice Biennale) once said that art is form of gymnastics where we practice to understand what we don't understand, to lose ourselves in things that don't make sense. I think this is what art is about, and even with all the progress of technology, art will continue to exist because curiosity is fundamental to human nature. The artist duo Kyungwon Moon and Joonho Jeon's recent project called "News From Nowhere" I think takes this to heart. Check out their website: http://newsfromnowhere.kr/ The also recently had a show at http://www.saic.edu/press/2013/sullivangalleriespresentsfirstmajorusexhibitionofmoonkyungwonandjeonjoonho/. Their film "El Fin Del Mundo" is wonderful. Also, their work is presented well on this new Korean art site called http://www.dodooba.com/ in Kyungwon Moon's artist website. Art and the art market are two different things. You should be proud of your art history degree. It allows you to think from a historical, philosophical, analytical perspective but also has probably made you a more open person. The art market certainly adds another dimension to art, (whether it be pretentious or not) but I think the best way for you to get other people excited about art is to: 1. stay excited yourself  - see great exhibitions. you'll be disappointed in some exhibitions, but there will be a few that just leave you feeling high. 2. continue to learn more about the artists, about their techniques, movements, practice, their world, 3. be able to articulate that excitement. I think genuine excitement, curiosity, and passion is always contagious. When we live in an era of constant information, data mining, artificial technology, etc your degree in art history will help you be able to think outside of the box! I'm glad you asked this question!