Why We Need Art

Art and literature provide a space in which the human imagination is relatively free to explore beyond the confines of our culture, embracing possibilities that have little or no sanction in current philosophy, religion, science, commerce, or politics. It is often conservative, since it preserves cultural styles that are elsewhere abandoned, for example the hermeticism of the Renaissance. It can, however, also anticipate developments that we still hardly even have words to describe, such as the end of anthropocentrism. We need art and literature, and foreseeably always will, because no culture can encompass all of our dreams, hopes, fears and aspirations. Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human