Art is not a luxury, but a necessity. Art is the signature of civilizations. Nothing reveals more about the inner life of people than their arts. Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
Art is the only thing than can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.
I cannot see that art is anything less than a way of making joys perpetual. True revolutions in art restore more than they destroy. Art is art least in part a way of collecting information about the universe. The arts are life accelerated and concentrated. Art is not for the cultivated taste.