Imagine that you are in a debate with someone who asserts that, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, art is whatever the spectator thinks it is; there are no rules, no criteria, no universal boundaries delineating what is and what is not art, who is and who is not an artist. If something expresses or creates an aesthetic or emotional response, it is art.

You must take the other side of the debate: How would you respond to and rebut the view that art is whatever the spectator thinks it is? In the first chapter of Living with Art, Getlein lists six roles that artists fulfill; these may help you in coming up with your response. Come up with points and specific examples of art works to support of theother side of the debate, which is that not just anything can be art, not just anyone can be an artist: There are established and justifiable criteria to confer that status upon objects and individuals.