IELTS Band 9 Writing Samples & Essays (2026)

The proposition that arts funding constitutes a waste of public money betrays a fundamentally reductive understanding of what constitutes a functioning society. While public services such as healthcare and infrastructure are undeniably essential, I would argue that the arts serve an equally vital, if less immediately quantifiable, role in human civilisation, and that the dichotomy presented by this question is ultimately a false one.

The case for prioritising conventional public services appears compelling at first glance. Healthcare systems save lives, transport infrastructure facilitates economic activity, and educational institutions equip citizens with the skills necessary for productive employment. In times of fiscal constraint, it seems almost perverse to divert resources from these tangible necessities towards what might be characterised as luxury pursuits. Yet this analysis, while superficially logical, overlooks the profound interconnection between cultural vitality and societal wellbeing.

Consider, for instance, the role of the arts in mental health provision. The therapeutic benefits of creative expression are extensively documented in clinical literature, with art therapy programmes demonstrating measurable efficacy in treating conditions ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to dementia. In this context, arts funding does not compete with healthcare spending but rather complements it, potentially reducing demand on overstretched medical services. The city of Freiburg in Germany has pioneered prescribing museum visits as part of treatment plans for depression, reporting a 30% reduction in patients requiring pharmaceutical intervention.

Moreover, the arts generate substantial economic returns that are frequently undervalued in policy discussions. The UK creative industries contributed over 115 billion pounds to the economy in 2024, employing more than two million people and growing at nearly twice the rate of the broader economy. Theatre, music, and visual arts attract tourism, regenerate neglected urban areas, and incubate innovation that subsequently permeates commercial sectors. To characterise this as wasted expenditure requires a remarkably narrow definition of value.

Perhaps most fundamentally, the arts represent the mechanism through which societies interrogate their values, process collective trauma, and imagine alternative futures. A civilisation that invests exclusively in material infrastructure while neglecting its cultural fabric risks producing a populace that is physically sustained but spiritually impoverished. The great works of literature, music, and visual art that define human achievement were rarely created in environments hostile to creative endeavour.

In conclusion, far from representing wasteful expenditure, investment in the arts yields returns that are simultaneously economic, therapeutic, and civilisational. The most enlightened approach to public spending recognises that material and cultural wellbeing are not competing priorities but symbiotic necessities. Governments that understand this produce societies that are not merely functional but flourishing.