Given that humans have found art to be important to their lives since early man inhabited the earth - it does seem to be fairly crucial to our well being. The earliest undisputed African rock art dates back about 10,000 years. The Venus of Schelklingen is an Upper Paleolithic figure made of mammoth ivory. It is dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago.
For very young children, between 15 months & 5 years, there are 4 stages of writing & drawing - Random Scribbling, Controlled Scribbling, Lines & Patterns & finally Pictures of Objects & People. Once the child purposefully draws images they have mastered symbolic thinking. If children are given a wide variety of materials & media to experiment with & explore they need no instruction at all. Creativity means having the power to express yourself in your own way. Too often though, adults cannot resist the urge to direct & teach.
Yet, despite the obvious importance of art to human development, according to a recent survey:-
http://www.nsead.org/downloads/survey.pdf
"At least a third and up to 44% of teacher responses over all key stages indicate that time allocated for art and design had decreased in the last five years". How sad is that - SAT's win - Creativity loses.
A variety of art therapies have been used successfully for both physical & mental illness for many years. Art & healing have long been known to work together. The idea that creative expression can make a powerful contribution to
the healing process has been embraced in many different cultures. Art helps people express experiences that are too difficult to put into words. The following study looks at this in more detail.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804629/
So - In answer to my own question. There is a lot of point to the Arts. We ignore that & we become less rounded individuals. It doesn't matter what I like or what you like. It just matters that we continue to find time for Art & value it.
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