The Robeson County Board of Commissioners showed on Monday its members are supporters of the arts.

That might be a bit of an overstatement, but the commissioners did donate to the cause of artistic development in Robeson County. They transferred ownership of a building on West Ninth Street in Lumberton to The Robeson County Community Art Guild.

Whether or not this was an act of purest altruism, we may never know. County government may simply have divested itself of a building for which it no longer had a use. The commissioners may have decided the building — a house once occupied by the county’s Computer Operations Department — wasn’t worth the cost of upkeep.

Or, the county’s motivation, at least in part, can be found in Board Chair Faline Dial’s words when she said Monday the commissioners are “looking forward” to seeing art on display in the building.

For the Guild’s part, Executive Director for Marketing Jim Tripp said the building “will serve as a venue for exhibitions, classes in various mediums, Lunch and Learn, staff development, master classes and more.”

Whatever, one group of local artists have a home, a castle of creativity, in which they can develop their craft and nurture in others a love of the arts.

“Big deal!” you say?

Perhaps, or perhaps not.

But the arts are a big deal, despite what some may say. Training in the arts — something being squeezed out of our public schools — expands the mind and feeds the soul. Exposure to art in all its forms helps people see the world in different ways. People trained in the arts can think and address problems in a creative manner. To borrow from a popular, and perhaps overused, phrase; artists can think outside the box.

Artists and art students also can see beauty to which others may be blind.

And it can not be stressed too strongly: Without art there would be no man-made beauty in the world.

To the doubters out there, consider this: Without art and artists the music we love would not exist. There would be no jewelry with which to adorn ourselves. Fashion lovers would be dressed in drab garb meant only to cover their bodies and to be functional. Even the houses in which we live and the buildings in which we work would be built in a spartan fashion with no thought to being pleasing to the eye. There would be no murals on walls, no framed art hanging in galleries, no monuments or statues, no strains of music filling the air, and no singing.

Without art our world would be a drab, dreary place inhabited by people with little or no imagination and less light in their eyes.

Yes, less light because art fosters joy, which in turn adds an essential spark to life that shines in the eyes. Ask any artist how he or she feels when a vision becomes reality ready to be shared with others. They will speak of satisfaction, pride and joy.

The Guild now has a place where they can train others to create art and feel those uplifting emotions. They have a nest from which will fly fledgling artists. These new sculptors, painters, photographers or whatever may never earn a dime from what they create, but they will be spiritually richer for having exercised their inner artist.

And all of us will be richer for the art they share.

Don’t believe it. Go to Arts on Elm on April 24. You may leave a supporter of the arts.