To Create or Imitate

I spend a lot of my time in the arts not making art but contemplating why art needs to be made.  One of my greatest challenges is to insure that young art students know why art exists and why humans seemed compelled to make it and make it a part of culture.  This seems to be the most creatively sensitive generation with the most avenues of involvement in the arts along with the greatest need to understand what art is and what is it purpose.  When I was young America had just begun to emerge as the leading edge of artist culture.  Today it is our greatest export.  It is critical that young students think critically and learnedly about the arts and its role to create or imitate culture.