Perhaps nothing separates us from earlier generations of Quakers more than our love of arts and entertainment. It’s not just that our frequent references to music, fictional stories, and visual arts would have perplexed or even annoyed them. Especially as part of our vocal ministry during worship.
Rather, these were simply forbidden as vain or even useless. The focus was on piety and humble service.
Pleasure for its own sake? We wouldn’t have been members back then, period.
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And now I find myself envisioning some of Peter Milton’s wonderful lithographs in which earlier generations of artists watch from the balconies or wings of the scene unfolding. I often have that sense of the past watching us — and that includes in our Quaker circles.
Jnana's Red Barn 
The “Friends” that I remember from my early childhood in the Appalachians are Quaker, right? They have a special place in my heart, gentle, forthright, hard working, loving but not mushy, appreciative of nature, good teachers of life lessons and practical survival techniques. They taught us starving children to fish instead of handing us a fish… so to speak. I don’t know about their artistic leanings but they did appreciate the beauty of God’s world.
Yes, nature is deeply appreciated. I am intrigued by other ways the artistic impulse still flowered in the old Quaker culture. Poetry, mathematics, graceful architecture come to mind.
I was struck yesterday – I was invited to sit in a Jewish friend’s sukkah, and it had decorations in it. She tells me that there is an understanding that it’s one thing to observe the commandment, but it’s even better to beautify it; to make it special.
I wonder whether there’s something like that in the old Quaker culture’s appreciation of graceful architecture; if it’s necessary, why not make it beautiful? But pursuing pleasure for its own sake is different.
Perhaps there’s a class distinction too? Pleasure for its own sake was once the leisure of wealthy people who profited from the labour of others, whereas now it has become more easily accessible to all.
I think you’re right on target with that. There’s an art of living, too, we often overlook.