Try to imagine living in a world without art. What would be missing from our lives?
Well, to start with, there would be no movies, TV shows, magazines, video games, YouTube, Snapchat, Flickr or Instagram. There would be no wedding photographs to share, in fact no photographs at all. Food and product labels would be generic and our clothes would be devoid of color and style.
You would not bother to travel to see the architecture or the many art treasures in Rome or Paris or go west to see the artwork of Native Americans.
Art enriches our lives and culture. It lifts us out of our everyday struggle for survival and gives meaning to the things that we do, it gives us a way to make sense of life.
To be sure, a world without art would not be a world without beauty. Nature is more beautiful than anything that we can create but by learning to appreciate art, we can more fully understand the beauty that surrounds us.
In many African languages and cultures there is no word for art because art is simply an integral part of life and there is no need to separate the two. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from other civilizations that have existed for thousands of years.