In the immediacy of the moment, it may seem as though the arts are expendable. They are, after all, not essential for survival. You can live without paintings, music, or sculptures. You cannot live without food, shelter, clothing, medicine.

In the long term, however, over the course of centuries, the arts become more and more important.

Think about this: How do we know about ancient cultures – the Greeks and Romans, for example, or the ancient inhabitants of the Americas? What remains behind when these cultures fade into oblivion? On what do we base our knowledge, understanding, and judgement of these long-gone peoples? What is it that archaeologists dig up about these people?

Largely their art: From the cave paintings of the Anasazi, to the mosaics of Pompeii; from the pottery shards of the ancient Celts, to the magnificent sculptures of classical Greece; the paintings of DaVinci, Rembrandt, Monet; the sculptures of Michelangelo, Donatello, Cellini; the music of Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart; the architecture of Brunelleschi, Bramante, Wright: The things that were created by artists, artisans, craftsmen – creative people. These are the things that endure over centuries, from which we derive our understanding of those who came before, and from which those who come after will derive their understanding of us.

The arts tell us (and others) who we are.