Art magazines are full of stories about how communication between artists, the art establishment and the public have broken down. That leads to lots of bristling opinions, often without much thought. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel invited a group of “artists, curators, critics, a museum director and his visiting farmer friend, art students and art teachers – one Saturday morning to tackle some tough but fundamental questions about contemporary art. Why does art even matter? What’s ‘good’ or ‘relevant’ anyway? Who gets to say so? Should art be beautiful, expressive, dense with ideas, easily understood, a perfect match for the sofa?”