I don't know where I would fit in all this. I've been hanging with painters and sculptors and composers and writers since my college days, and I once managed an art gallery, and I've worked for publishers. Lott says:
The people who are squeezed in this equation are not the elites or the plebs but the culturally aspirant. People like me, I suppose, who grew up without books or art or theatre, and do not find a middle-class lifestyle sufficient compensation for a inherited lack of cultural information. We live always in the knowledge that our choices may be the "wrong" ones.
The best way to develop your artistic taste is to go often to museums and galleries, see what you like, and then try to figure out why you like it (in terms of the work itself, that is). Once you're satisfied that you have sound reasons for feeling as you do, go your way in confidence. Eschew headphones: It is a visual art. At classical concerts, skip the program notes. Just listen to the music. And if you find a book boring and are not being paid to finish it, find something else to read. Life is short.
