I am so glad to have read Dissanayake's book, "What is Art For?" One of the ongoing challenges to working in the arts is the pressure to defend your occupation. Are other occupations like this? I've always wondered if athletes had to justify their chosen field as well. My guess is no, and yet sports operate outside of the "survival" list as much as the arts.

While I know the arts operate at the core level of what it is to be human, I did not have the words to describe the necessity of the arts to others. There are many in the arts who do the same thing. We are challenged to find data that justifies our work--how does one collect data on impacting another's soul?

But now when asked "How can you justify spending (public or private) funds on something like art when there are real social issues to be addressed?" I can respond: "because it addresses the very primal and very real social need to be human."