The dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp once said that “art is the only way to run away without leaving home”. At this point I think we can all testify to the accuracy of this maxim: human beings are so deeply reliant on art, especially when the contingencies of day-to-day life become unbearable.

Visual media, literature, music – all have the capacity either to lay bare the marrow of a crisis, or to transport us away from it altogether, if only for a moment or a few moments.

Of course, our investment in art is also one of the first things to flounder whenever the economy does: there is truth in the educator’s lament that art and drama programmes are always the first forfeits to budget cuts...