People travel all day to see a sculpture or a painting or a building. The artist was as respected in the community as a doctor or a priest. The tallest buildings were usually churches. Art was in the food, in the air, in the blood. Never mind that art didn't come over on the Mayflower, that the tallest buildings in Boston are banks and insurance companies, that the Globe arts staff is less than half the size and scope of the sports staff.
Art is the appreciation business.
It isn't that complicated. Bellows liked boxing. Cornell liked boxes. O'keefe liked the Southwest. Winslow Homer liked the Northeast.