What are the advantages of Art?

The “advantages” of Art – over pragmatic or constructive activities in the “real world” – are two-fold: for the artist, a means of self-expression, of releasing abstract emotions or ideas; for the consumer (the theatre or music patron or the patron at an art museum) Art is an ineffable connection with not only the artist but also with the realm of human senses outside the immediate “scientific” or “engineering” area of human conduct. “Value” is , in art, not necessarily connected with the profit motive of the free enterprise system. If the arts, whether visual, musical, or performance, acknowledge the existence of human value beyond mere survival, its advantage becomes obvious. The human condition is a complex set of needs, desires, and emotions, and the Arts serve those appetites.