At least in Western thought, we have historically dichotomized concepts, separated them from one another. So we think of mind separate from body, thinking from feeling, abstract from concrete. Plato taught that the concept is superior to the form. For instance, we can think in the abstract of a perfect square or circle, but we can never create one. As their work was representational, it could never reach perfection and was, therefore, inferior.
Art is less important than other study.
When students do have access to art courses, we even suggest to them that one or two of these courses might be a welcome break to them from the rigors of the real academic work. Yet to engage in considering art forms and to create art representations are actually complicated, sophisticated processes. They cause us to draw from our past experiences and to go beyond them as we consider a new creation, something that would not be a part of the world had it not been created by someone. The process of creation allows for invention and imagining possibilities. These thought processes are also essential to scientific discovery.