Art unquestionably lies at the core of the human experience.
Art reflects who we are, who we were, and who we think we want to be. As the arts do not exist in a vacuum they hold up a mirror to our society, our times, our thoughts and our values at the time they were created. Whether it be built into the structures we live in, oil painted on canvass on canvas, or chiseled marble art reflects the values of the artist and the society in which they painted. Whether one is admiring the aesthetic beauty Monet's Water Lilies or the frantic distortions of Edward Munch's The Scream, the art acts a stimulus for thought. Until recently starving artists or artists with wealthy patrons created art or were commissioned to create the works.