With the growing phenomenon of overpopulation in cities and urban areas, the growing concern has been sparked on how to make them better places to settle down. While some agree on investing in artwork and artifacts to develop the cultural life there, others, including myself, partly disagree with this options and suggest that monetary allocation should be directed to sustain more crucial aspects of life including health, education and infrastructure.
It is true that putting more art work on public display could bring several advantages on raising people’s awareness and cultural values. As people choose cities to settle down for its conveniences and opportunities, they may focus too much on work and lose the balance for life enjoyment or personal development. Therefore, citizens may gradually lose their knowledge and feelings for art, in general, which could probably dampen both the artistic aspects of themselves and the values of artwork. With the idea of investing more in sculptures, paintings or statues, governments could slowly affect people’s lives in a positive ways, contributing to sustaining the happiness of living in cities and raising public awareness and recognition for the artwork and its artists.
However, although investments in those artistic facets actually bring about benefits, governments should spend more on developing citizens’ comfort while living through upgrades in healthcare, education and infrastructure. While the spirit of the cities could gain compliment or popularity, the conveniences and true happiness coming from life are still the top priorities for a person when choosing a place to settle down. With the amount of money for a famous painting or carving a intricate sculpture, they could use that for a new healthcare machine, a new bus stop or a new small school for disadvantaged children. Thus, these investments not only create a reliable and comfortable life for citizens, but also sustain the workforce and long-term development of the society.
In conclusion, while I agree that putting more artwork into display could probably enhances public awareness and cultural values, the real comfort and outstanding points of cities, which governments should focus on, are the healthcare system, the educational settings or the infrastructure. Therefore, I believe that although some money could be spend on public artifacts, the top priorities should always be long-term and truely essential aspects of life.