Who Needs Art, Anyway?

So, how important is art? I don't mean the question facetiously, or worse, fatuously. When you work in the arts, all day, every day, it occasionally comes as something of a shock to realize that there are large sections of the population that do not care one whit about the so-called 'arts'. Inside the great hullabaloo over the cuts in funding to schools, libraries, the environment, and yes, the arts, is an ongoing tired old argument about what is truly important enough to spend money on. Your kid's education may certainly take precedence, the environment, yes... yes. But some modern dancer somewhere spinning in circles, or an artist immersing a crucifix in dubious fluids saved up in a mason jar?