1. It pushes you to live more authentically, to pay attention to what is important.
2. It pushes you to think differently.  Creative people rule the world.
3. It's practical. Aside from the visual fun, art pulls together history, psychology, and sociology.
4. It is a universal means of communication in a fragmented and self-absorbed culture.
5. It will help you to understand yourself better (We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourself, poetry W.B. Yeats).
6. It will make you a more interesting person; fun at parties and a bit more bad ass.

You should be afraid of art, it can change your life.  You should be afraid of artists. By their nature they are subversive. They ask questions, challenge authority.  They do not accept the status quo.  Madeline Puzo, Dean of Theater, USC