What is the value of the arts?

Indeed - not only do they bring in dosh, but they enhance our lives in every way, especially those of children who are proved to behave better and be more confident if they are involved in music-making, drama, visual arts etc. But the sector is so underfunded. Very sad. It has become the enclave of the rich or middle classes, but it is everyone's right.

A very sore point in our house, as our son had set his heart on going to a university that closed its music department last year, through the withdrawal of government funding for the arts. All universities now have to provide their own funding for music, art and drama studies. We still haven't recovered from the shock - ranked the fifth best music department in the UK and only 50 minutes away from us. He has only just started looking at other places, but we know some of the music tutors there and of course they have sto stay until the last year has gone through, after which they have to find jobs and probably move away.

I remember taking DS2 to see Paddinton Bear's Magical Mystery Tour and he fidgetted throughout. 10 days later we went to the ballet and he sat transfixed for the whole show. He was 3 1/2. I took an adult to watch the Royal Ballet School summer show and she had never seen a ballet before but she instinctively knew which were the best dancers.

We know what is good without anyone having to tell us but we are not all given the opportunity to find out.

I think most children are born musical but we don't nurture it and therefore they miss out on so much. GSs travel in the car with Classic FM which is just enough to interest them but not enough to bore if it is a piece they don't like. Then at nursery they are exposed to other types of music and again on television.

I love the theatre and go as often as possible with my daughter and her two oldest daughters. We went to see Blood Brothers last night and it was beautiful. We all got very emotional at the sad ending but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

movedalot your post reminds me of a friend who didn't finish school but he loves going to art galleries and simply says "I don't know why it makes me feel good (to look at a painting) but it does. That's all I need to know".

I haven't told people this but DH and I were visiting one of the museums in Washington and they had a exhibit of Von Gogh.I was fairly interested,figured why not,once in a life time thing. Anyway,I was walking around glancing at the pictures not thinking about them much,and I came upon one of his self portraits not one I had seen before,and I started crying! I was embarrassed,luckily no one noticed. It was kind of spooky,odd.It wasn't a overly somber picture either. I should of looked to see more about it but I didn't think too,just moved on fast!

My son took me to see Madame Butterfly a couple of years ago, and in the last half hour we both wept uncontrollably, even though neither of us understood a word. We got outside the theatre and agreed neither of us should ever speak of it again!

Envious; that happened to me in Florence when I stood in front of a Madonna and Child in the Uffizi gallery. Tears streaming down my face. As for Blood Brothers, again can remember leaving the theatre in tears and storming through Nottingham saying to my friend 'nothing has changed' and feeling all political...come the revolution and all that...

It is wonderful when any of the Arts moves us to tears. I have seen Giselle many more times than I can remember but went to one matinee when Leanne Benjamin was dancing the role and came out in floods of tears. That never happened before or since.

Went to watch Nigel Kennedy last night and, yes, agree he is a bit odd but what a wonderful musician? He used to live here so clearly had a special feeling and gave us a lot more than on the programme. It should have ended at 9.30 but eventually it was 1045.

We are very fortunate to have sucah a great theatre here and to be only an hour away from all the wonders in Birmingham.

The Arts are to each individual what they perceive them to be. Some understand all arts some just some of them. I fall into the latter group as I struggle to understand a pile of bricks, sack loads of rubbish or unmade beds. I assume that I am not artistically aware as some. I agree however that all art is important to the individual, community and nation.
I often visit the sculptures on the pedestrianised sea front in Limassol and see a new viewpoint at each visit. We have a sculptor in our village and samples of his work, in bronze, add a certain richness and beauty to the place. I often admire his talent and that of the great masters and their paintings. Tegan mentioned her being moved in Florence,I was looking forward to a trip there and Naples myself with my ex last month, sadly not to be, but I will reschedule the trip for another time and go alone to soak up the art.
Arts value, as Movedalot said, is far greater than can be measured in financial terms and long may it remain so for all of us to enjoy no matter what our tastes or preferences be.

Tegan I took my DDs to the Uffizi when they were eight and eleven. The younger one wept in front of Venus rising on her shell. I was startled that she was so affected.. She is/was not particularly artistic. It's a very emotional place when you see all those things that you had read about or seen copies of.

We had to queue for ages outside. My ex, my daughter and me were bored out of our heads waiting but my son was fine. We asked him later why he wasn't bored and he said he just pretended he was queuing for a ride at Alton Towers . I had a Venus shower curtain and he said he wasn't going to invite any of his friends to the house. Funny creatures, sons. I'm hoping to visit the Louvre in a few weeks time.

On a visit to Paris with my sixteen year old daughter we went to the Louvre and were fortunate to visit at a time when it wasn't crowded, however we were both left unmoved by the exhibits and their surroundings. The following day we visited the Musée d'Orsay and were rendered speechless; the artworks and the building itself were captivating, it was really difficult to drag ourselves away. We moved on to the Musée d'Art Moderne and found that the contents were the French equivalent, to us, of the Emperor's New Clothes. In fact my daughter was so frustrated that she couldn't wait to leave.

ga isn't that strange, one museum/gallery moves us and another leaves us cold. We usually find 2 or 3 hours is enough in one place but spent an entire day in the Prado and could go back and do it again and again. The Hermitage didn't get to us at all, we had such high expectations and were very dissappointed.

ps I think you are far from alone in not appreciating people like Tracey Emmin!

Many years ago DS and I went to the sketchbooks of Picasso exhibition and now I understand Picasso. I suppose if we are taken to one of the Arts by an enthusiast we learn a lot more than if we went on our own. I can enthuse (bore?) about ballet for hours and hours and...............

I typically have an 'Emperor's New Clothes' attitude to modern art but will say that when I went to see Tracey Emmin's bed, I actually found it quite moving. It wasn't just the bed, it was the story that was in the room setting.

I go to the theatre most weeks, very lucky to have so much to choose from in the London area and many things are not expensive, cheaper often than a cinema ticket.

Me too Sel one of the reasons we moved here is that we have a great theatre and I often see things before they get to the West End. Also we are within an hour of Birmingham so get to Symphony Hall and the Hippodrome which has the best ballet company in the UK imo. Going to see them in Buxton next week too. Brum also has a great Museum and Art Gallery, saw the Staffordshire hoard recently.

We are lucky in this country I think Moved - so much to see and do and something to suit everyone, if that's their thing. There's an informality here too, perhaps we're not so heavy about The Arts as some countries.

I think you are right, sel. I have been asked often, by visiting Europeans, what the cultural life of my area is like. So I list, off the top of my head, galleries, theatres etc. it was easier when we lived in London, and Rochester was good because there was always Dickens! (Being frivolous!) but it is a question I haven't been asked by someone British, oddly enough.

I think we make the cultural life we have part of ourselves, and it's only when thinking about a question such as moved raises, that we realise exactly what we value. Poetry for me, always, always has the power to shake me.

I am very lucky in that I live across the road from the Opera House in Buxton and love going to all sorts of events there. I think the Arts are extremely important to us. My DS is taking his 3yr old daugther there on Sunday to see 'Dora the Explorer'. She is so excited, it will be her second theatre visit and was captivated by the characters on stage.

Buxton Opera House is one of my favourite places in the world. We went to see the pantomime there one year and stayed overnight at a local hotel. Unfortunately the road from Derby can be quite treacherous in winter so we don't visit the place as often as we'd like. In fact, it was on the Michael Portillo programme the other day which made me want to visit it again.

Has anyone been to see Mathew Bournes Swan Lake? It is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. All the swans are portrayed by men, so very very powerful. It even took my husband's breath away and he's not a ballet fan. We shall certainly go to see it again ahem it visits our theatre.

I love all the arts - music, visual arts, theatre, ballet....but the prices to see something live here are just impossible on the pension. Never mind, there are always DVDs; and art galleries are affordable.

When I was a young student in Vienna I just loved the art galleries, and a special treat once was a Gustav Klimt exhibition.

I often got free tickets to concerts, theatre or ballet, because it was the 'done thing' to give any subscription tickets you couldn't use, to a student. I was the only student a lot of people knew!! I got to love operetta, because it was often political - they would change to words to satirise the political situation at the time - usually from a left wing perspective. I guess that would nobble their funding in this day and age.