absence of art

a good friend of mine sparked an interesting thought the other night by announcing that the office he worked in downtown held an eerie "absence of art". his take was that the people he worked with would rather surround themselves with other like minded people and that was how they defined their cultural interests. this thought soon evolved into the idea that these people were really only surrounding themselves with things that could help drive their goals, in this case the pursuit of money...what would we all surround ourselves with if there was an absence of art. define art as you wish while thinking about it.