Across the performing arts industry, you hear the complaint that sizable, reliable audiences are a thing of the past. Subscription sales are giving way to single tickets. Administrators have to aggressively market the artists to keep the house filled.

I have a pet explanation for this, and the events of the past week brought it to mind. Our culture has not lost its taste for music, song, and dance. And the performing arts have not simply been supplanted by television and film. What we have today are so many ways to insulate ourselves from pain that the performing arts have lost their role as a soothing balm.

We have lost the tradition of finding solace in art.

In a bygone era, when distractions and escapes were either more expensive or less accessible, the performing arts were an easy way to forget reality. They held out the possibility of joy through harmony, beauty, and depth of feeling. But today, instead of listening to a symphony by Strauss to forget your troubles, you can have a dose of Prozac, a new flat-screen television, or a quick getaway to Hawaii.

When in history have so many people had access to so many material ways to amuse themselves? Shopping has become a national pastime, like professional sports. Air travel allows those with the means to skip all over the globe. If all these things exist to make you squeal with delight, why put yourself through the heartbreak of “Giselle” or “La Traviata”? Why waste time feeling sad?

Living in an emotional bubble is one way of going about life. But reality eventually will pierce through the chemical- and credit card-created layer of bliss, and a new Juicy Couture sweatsuit is not going to heal the emotional wound. The arts provide a way of “coping” – a method for accepting and thinking about the many joys and sorrows that come along.

I was reminded of this argument while watching the thousands of people struggling to get to basic food and water during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Somewhere in the many news reports was footage of a man on a street playing “When the Saints Coming Marchin’ In” on the trumpet. (This was on Tuesday, when the National Guard should have been doing just that.) I will never hear that song again without thinking of the suffering that thousands felt as a great American city crumbled.

It is part of the human condition to return to song and dance or art in general during times of joy and sadness. There is a great need for philanthropy in this situation, as there was after the Asian tsunami and September 11, 2001.

But when the check has been sent off, what do you do? Play with your pearls? Watch “Animal House”? Plan a vacation? Have a Valium? A double Scotch? It seems to me that these are hollow, momentary fixes. The real way of grappling with what we see and read is to face it through the arts. As pat as it may be, Barber’s Violin Concerto is cathartic and deeply satisfying. Warmth and calm can be found in watching Balanchine’s “Diamonds” pas de deux from the ballet “Jewels.”

With the anniversary of September 11 coming up this weekend, there’s even more reason to make some plans that include the performing or visual arts. If you’re looking for something arts-related to do on Sunday and beyond, there are a few good picks around town. (And though this column is about dance, I’m branching out: There’s not that much dance on at the moment, unless you pop in a DVD.)

New York City Opera is returning to the State Theater and on Sunday it will perform a most heart-wrenching opera, “Madama Butterfly,” at 1:30 p.m. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has its Matisse exhibit up until September 25. And at the Museum of Modern Art, there is a last chance to see its Cezanne and Pissarro exhibit, which closes on September 12.

There is some free dance to catch on Sunday in Harlem. The Dancenow/NYC Festival will be at Marcus Garvey Park Amphitheater. On stage will be Ailey II, Nicholasleichterdance, and more. The free performance runs from 3 to 6 p.m., in Marcus Garvey Park, at 122nd Street and Mount Morris Park West. There is even more free dance coming up next week. From September 14 to 17 is the Evening Stars program at Battery Park, provided by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Joyce Theater.

On Wednesday, September 14, the program will feature the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Doug Elkins and Dancers, Ballet Hispanico, and the Kansas City Ballet. Thursday’s bill includes the Parsons Dance Company, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and Ailey II, and more, all dancing to recorded hits. Friday’s show is devoted to a site specific work by Merce Cunningham titled “Batteryparkevent.” On Saturday afternoon (at 3 p.m.) is the Urban Freestyle Dance Contest, the winner of which will perform in the evening. Momix and Rennie Harris Puremovement will also take the stage during the Saturday night show. All performances are free and most start at 7:30 p.m.

If all your worldly possessions can be washed away, doesn’t it make sense to fill up on beauty and joy – the memories of which cannot be taken away?