India, Sept. 25 -- The pandemic has brought the art world to its knees. The silence is ominous and the webinars and online propaganda are somewhat stifling when you think of how suddenly it is only about talking and voices and voices and talking. Amid the many cancellations of fairs, exhibitions, films, plays, performances and dances globally, we must ask ourselves questions about the value of art and culture at a time when humanity is under great stress. When it is fighting for its very survival as the virus throws up a kind of socio-economic disparity and devastation we have not witnessed in recent times.

At a time when people tell us that there are much more important things to worry about in this world than art, one would beg to diff...