Humans have been engaging in the arts since more than 40,000 years ago! The existance of the arts really is a mystery. In a world where stones were the primary tools, and predators lurked high above humans in the food chain, we still found the time to create art and music. The fact that humans engage in an activity that does not provide them with food, clothing, shelter, or safety, has been interpreted as evidence for the fact that the arts were a vital component of life in prehistoric human lives. This is true to this day.
The arts are with us since birth. Newborn babies can identify timbres, volume, vocal qualities, and so much more from birth (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/newborn-babies-in-study-recognized-songs-played-to-them-while-in-the-womb/2013/11/02/294fc458-433d-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html…) As vision, touch, and motor control develop, babies begin to explore their worlds by creating things outside of themselves, with any objects and materials within their reach. As we grow older, we become conditioned to the aesthetics that have been determined by marketing companies, luring us with colors, shapes, sizes, and jingles. And when we face an extreme in life (happiness, sadness, anger or fear), we turn to music, art, fashion, dance, etc., things that become representations of complex feelings and emotions.
We engage in the arts because we NEED it.
But the arts cannot exist without us. It’s a symbiotic relationship we cannot ignore.