To my mind, art is in fact a public good.
It actually brings the sense of purpose, the sense of inspiration, the sense of context, of nuance, of knowledge that cannot be provided in other ways to a society that cannot be made impossible by wealth.
A common concern for any parent is wondering what your child is going to do when they grow up.
For the family of Damian Wetzel, there was no such anxiety.
His professional pathway may be traced to a moment when, aged 11, he says, one of the ballet masters took the time to show me a few exercises in the lobby of his local ballet school in Boston, Massachusetts.
He says, I learned right on the spot how to turn multiple times, pirouettes, just while I was waiting for the car.
Well, this was the beginning of a lifetime of dance.
Damien Wetzel worked his way to become a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, performing also with the likes of the Kirov.
He retired in 2008, going to lecture in the law department at Harvard and then serving on President Barack Obama's committee on the Arts and Humanities.
He's now president of the Juilliard School in Norman, New York, where he aims to transform the world class musical college into a fee free establishment.
I'm Emma Nelson and this is the big interview with Damian Wetzel.
Damien, a very warm welcome to the big interview.
Thanks so much.
Good to be with you, Emma.
So let's go straight back to this moment in the lobby in Boston in the ballet school and you suddenly start to turn and you realise that this is something that's rather special.
I mean, does ballet click from a very early age or do things take a little bit longer?
My first dance lesson, I suppose was when I was 4 years old.
And when I look back on that, it was literally like walking in a circle, clapping in time and, you know, that sort of thing.
But pretty quickly I began performing and that's what kind of was the bite, I guess.
You know, I was in the Nutcracker in Boston from about age 7 and being on stage, it was just a magical world, you know, to inhabit.