What is Art?

I watched a bit of Mr. Holland's Opus the other day.  This is my all time favorite teaching movie and  I can't help myself but stop and watch some of it whenever it is on.  The scene I caught was his first day ever of teaching where he asks a group of high school students "What is music?"  This scene got me thinking... what is art?

Being the geek that I am, I asked google.  

I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about this question.  This is partially because of a cricket at my window and partially because I am a bit stressed about the start of the new school year.  I want to change things up a bit and challenge the students to be more thoughtful in their work and in their perception of the world around them.  But I worry that I may be aiming above the heads of my middle school children.  

This will be the first year of a new evaluation system that includes Student Learning Objectives - requiring pre- and post-tests to gauge student progress through the course.  I am actually considering a writing prompt that is as simple as this question - "What is art?"  But, I fear asking such a general question will result in a general answer and the great philosophical potential will be missed by the students (and some of the administrators!).  

But maybe that is the point - they won't get it in September but by June they will see the depth of thought that can go into responding to such a  question... 

In "What is Art?", Leo Tolstoy says:
Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

---

I believe this.  So perhaps it is time to raise the bar and to engage my students in deeper thought.  Perhaps it is time to ask the question, "what is art?"