Art - what is it good for?

Check out this excellent post (excellent as in "I agree") over at Mark Vallen's "Art for a Change", triggered by a recent Los Angeles panel discussion entitled "Whither Arts Journalism in LA?". While I would probably disagree with Vallen about pretty much everything else he believes, I do agree that "people have not abandoned art because they are stupid… they have abandoned it because art has become stupid." There was a time when art had a functional purpose in people's lives, but somewhere in the past century art became inwardly focused and self-obsessed, a world unto itself - the art world.

Gallerist Caryn Coleman, one of the panel participants, has responded on her blog, art.blogging.la.