Dying in the arts

Summer means every major Australian gallery is advertising an imported 'blockbuster' exhibition

They're invariably dead males from another country and we're told they're important.

But these backward-looking shows are one symptom of an illness that sees art isn't recognised for having a role everyone's daily lives.

Art is dying up its own arse, seemingly happy to be the domain of practitioners with letters after their names and increasingly hiding in academic clothing.

I'd hope most people would agree that creativity, like exercise, is an important activity.

Yet we see very few role models.

Just like sport, art's cultural sibling, it ought to be promoted as needing 30 minutes a day.

But, also like sport, people are mostly offered to buy a passive relationship with the thing they claim to love.