You could almost say it's the Arts that make us human.  Music, drama, poetry, literature, dance, sculpture, drawing, painting, performance... these may be obvious categories of creativity.  Yet our society is full of other expressions which make our environment what it is: product design, graphic design, landscaping, architecture - to name but a few.  Sound, colour, texture, size and scale, choice of materials, aspect, seasonality - choices are made about all of these in every aspect of how we design, construct and adapt our living spaces, the tools we use, in fact, everything around us.

So to me the Arts are not about how you choose to spend your leisure time, they are crucial to what creates quality of life in everything we do.

Focusing on artistic endeavour highlights certain skills and sensitivities which make us better performers at other things.  It's arguable that children who regularly perform music are better at maths.  Personally I'd argue that music is in fact a branch of mathematics - if only we could have maths teachers who had musical sensitivity for the subject, I'm sure more pupils would be enthusiastic.  And no doubt, somewhere, we do have such teachers.

Drama and performance encourages self-confidence.  So does singing.  One of my favourite performers, Jim Couza, says "Singing together makes us strong."  I believe that.  The Arts enable us to communicate feelings and insights which are really important to us.  Good design encourages use and builds receptiveness in an intended audience.  That's as true for a well constructed annual report as it is for well-played Shakespeare.

Check out Lorca's essay Theory and Function of the Duende.

A subject for debate?