Art & Entertainment Who can say where entertainment begins and "art" begins? Or where they merge? Throughout history, Art has been sponsored by patrons and enjoyed primarily by the elite while entertainment for the most part has been created for the masses. Often fought to the death the entertainments of the Roman emperors within the Coliseum placated the mass of the citizenry, being one half of the "bread and circuses" provided -- entertainment a bit more brutal than the professional football and hockey contests so avidly attended in our own day. Lifting played its part within the Roman Coliseum. The theater is emblematic of the artistic presentations supported and enjoyed by the artistocracy through the eras, the lifting of a cast member to stage level being the sophisticated equivalent of the gladiator being hoisted to an uncertain future! The political leaders relished being the center of attention at the mass entertainments; after life on earth, they perpetuated their regimes with the erection of statues and monuments -- which again required more heavier lifting.