Although there are many disciplines which are variously shaped into different professions, before one practices any profession to the fullest, such a person must be able to effectively combine the knowledge gained in other fields to stand out in his chosen career. This means that knowledge itself is a pyramid which one have to climb to the top to see other sides of it. Staying at the base of such a pyramid greatly limits the potentials as well as the versatility of the learner. For example, there is a beautiful relationship between art and public relations. However, this relationship can be better understood by those are practicing, not those who have received PR training, but are doing other things than practicing the PR profession.
Art can be broadly viewed as any activity or a form of human expression that uses a creative medium in order to foster communication for an intended change in a system, environment or society. The communication can be seen in two ways: Between the artist and audience; and between the work of art and the viewer. The first has to do with the message the artist intends to pass across to the audience. In this form of communication, the artist use the art work as a public relation tool in preaching the desired values or morals for a positive change to take place. For example, a poster design created by an artist to preach the ills of war will make use of certain images or motifs that trigger sober reflection on the part of audience. This may lead to a change in attitude of the people especially in resolving differences without allowing them to degenerate into full blown crisis. Consequently, the role played by the art work which helps in building peace among contending groups is as a result of the communication which has taken place between the artist and the people using the artwork as medium.
The second type of communication (between the art work and the viewer) has to do with how the viewer understands the work of art. As one takes time to look at a work of art, certain thoughts run through his/her subconscious mind; this makes the viewer to understand as well as experience the work deeper than merely considering its aesthetics values. This form of communication between the art work and the viewer may not necessarily sustain the message which the artist had in mind to pass across to the audience, it is totally dependent on what the viewer understands about the work. This is more or less like an unguided communication which is prone to being misunderstood by the person who is at the receiving end. In public relations, the feed back will not be useful since, the expected result was not achieved.
Public Relations on the other hand can be described as an art of managing various publics that relate with an organization. This involves communicating with all relevant internal and external publics in order to build as well as sustain a positive relationship that will make the organization to achieve her goals and also meet the social expectations. This means that, for an organization to succeed in achieving its set objectives it must be able to have a good public relation team to manage its publics. The term ‘publics’ is used in PR to mean individuals or groups that have direct/indirect relationship with an organization and are affected (directly or indirectly) by the policies of that organization. For example, the publics of a particular secondary school can be said to be teachers/workers in the school, students, people in the community where the school is located, and even the people selling learning materials (like books, pencils, writing ink, etc) around the school environment which are patronized by students. All these factions (publics) have different interests in the school and a change in the polices of the school will affect each one of them. The role of a PR staff in any organization is to suggest to the management on the type of communication channel /method that will bring the desired change in that organization. A healthy change in any particular system is the type that benefits the system as well as smoothen relationship between that system and its various publics.
One of the important function of communication in the practice of the two professions (art and public relations) is to effect a change. Although, it is widely known that the only constant thing in life is change, what is not certain or not constant is the reactions after change has taken place. For example, it is difficult to exactly predict how organization’s various publics would react to a new policy, which is meant to bring hardships for a while but will latter benefit them in the long run. This is where PR communication skills or strategies are required. A good PR communication considers all views of its organization as well as conduct series of researches on the publics to fairly predict how the publics would react if a given policy is initiated for a change to take place in a system. The results of the research are used in measuring the effect of an intended policy in line with what the organization stands to gain.
In visual art practice also, an artist would move around in the community and see as well as interact with people in his/her immediate environment, to understand their feelings/views or thoughts about the government of the day. This makes the artist armed with ideas and knowledge of things in the society to produce visual commentaries that touch on the socio-political issues/conditions of people in his/her locality or country. All these are meant to trigger a positive change in the society.
On the whole, the relationship of visual art practice and public relations practice can not be seen from the outside except by those who are in the two professions. That does not mean that a PR professional can as well be regarded as an artist; neither does it make sense to say that an artist can effectively fits in the position of PR practitioner in a given organization. The common ground on which both relate is in the area of communication. As a PR practitioner, one makes excellent plans, making use of different forms of communications to help the organization to achieve its goals without damaging the relationship with its publics. In visual art practice also, artists make use of attractive concepts/media that will pull audience’s aesthetic consciousness in order to effect a positive change in the society. While in PR the communication is verbal, visual art communicates in a reflective mode, shaping one’s mind to form better values, better morals, but most importantly for an idea society.
*** Art in Disguise ***
