For one TV cameraman, it has proved the weirdest of assignments. He is living in a tent in the London garden of Britain's most flamboyant artist, Grayson Perry, best known for avant-garden pottery and cross-dressing.

The TV company has even supplied him with a Portaloo for the month-long project. When filming is underway, the director has to shout directions at him through a window.

The programme, Grayson's Art Club, is about encouraging people to be creative during the lockdown using whatever comes to hand - from bottle tops to magazines. Art, argues Perry, is a useful distraction in a crisis, but he also wants to explore "why we do art, and what we're doing it about, and what that says about the times we're living in".

The lockdown has changed the way many people experience art, from ZoomSoftware platform that allows simple online meetings and gatherings. book clubs to the streaming of plays from leading theatres.

It has also raised the question of how much we value art, with thousands of artists suddenly unemployed, and theatres and galleries HaemorrhagingLosing a huge amount. In medicine, it refers to a severe loss of blood ("haima" is the Greek word for blood). money while they stand empty.

One company, which owns six theatres, estimates that it is losing 150,000 a week. Britain's most successful producer, Cameron MackintoshThe producer of hugely successful musicals, such as Cats, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera. He is thought to be worth more than 1 billion., claims that the lockdown is costing him millions. Stephen FryAn English actor and writer whose recordings of the Harry Potter series are among the most popular audio books ever. and Philip PullmanAn English author (and former teacher) whose books include Northern Lights and The Amber Spyglass. are among the signatoriesPeople who have signed something. For example, there were 59 signatories to Charles I's death warrant; eight were hung, drawn, and quartered after the restoration of the monarchy, while some (already dead) had their bodies dug up and their heads put on spikes. of an open letter asking the government to support artists financially during the crisis.

The government's main focus is obviously on the victims of the pandemic and those who care for them. But it announced yesterday that cancer treatment and mental health were the NHS's next priorities - and Grayson Perry believes his programme can make a vital contribution to mental health.

"We want fun, but we also want to concentrate on the more contemplative, serious aspects of what people are going through at the moment. I'm not going to pretend that it's not upsetting."

Art has had a significant role in other crises. In 1942, Shostakovich's LeningradThe name for St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, during the Communist era. The siege lasted for nearly two and a half years, during which time a third of the population died. Symphony was played in the city by an orchestra of half-starved musicians and broadcast to the besieging German army. A German soldier later said that he and his comrades realised then that the Russians' spirit could never be broken.

Some say, of course not. The arts are a luxury - even in normal times, many of us cannot afford to go to a concert or to the theatre. They are the last thing on people's minds when they are feeling ill or hungry, and the last thing the government should be spending money on at a time of crisis. They are certainly not going to keep anyone out of a Covid-19 ward.

Others argue that the arts are the highest expression of our humanity, and can be relied upon to cheer us and console us in difficult times. Everyone knows what it is like to be uplifted by a beautiful picture, and there are numerous accounts of people being awoken from comas by a favourite piece of music, or helped through a depression by poetry. Without art, life would not be worth living.