Art: Luxury or Necessity

When budgets tighten and times are hard, art is often the first thing dismissed as a frivolous extravagance. I disagree with this view; far from being a dispensable luxury, art is a fundamental human need woven into the fabric of every society.

It is easy to see why some regard art as inessential. Unlike food, shelter or medicine, a painting or a symphony does not keep anyone alive, and in moments of genuine scarcity such pursuits can appear self-indulgent. People struggling to meet basic needs may understandably view museums and concert halls as distractions reserved for those with time and money to spare.

This reasoning, however, mistakes survival for living. Human beings have created art in every culture and every era, from cave paintings to street murals, long before they enjoyed material comfort, which suggests that the impulse to make and share beauty is not a late luxury but a deep necessity. Art allows us to process grief, celebrate joy and make sense of experiences that ordinary language cannot capture. A life stripped of music, story and image would be functional yet hollow, sustaining the body while starving the spirit.

Moreover, art performs practical functions that critics overlook. It binds communities together, preserves collective memory and can even aid healing, as the growing use of art in therapy demonstrates. For these reasons, I firmly believe that art is a necessity rather than a luxury. While it may not feed or shelter us, it answers an equally profound hunger, and a civilisation that abandons it would be poorer in every sense that ultimately matters.