In some respects, art does provide much entertainment by allowing the viewer/reader to forget his/her problems for a short length of time, such as by attending a stage play or by going to see a movie on the big screen. But art can also be far more than mere entertainment, due to forcing the viewer/reader to ponder the mysteries of human existence and to use their in-born ability to think imaginatively and with abstraction. For example, by viewing a painting in a museum, a person can be entertained by its beauty and artistic mastery, but a painting can also take the viewer/observer into the past, much like a time machine, to a place or event which has long disappeared. Also, by viewing a movie based on an historical figure or event, the viewer/observer can often place himself within the action on the screen and perhaps come to understand...

From my own experience, the film Braveheart with Mel Gibson helped me to understand the personality of William Wallace and to appreciate his contributions to the history of Scotland. Reading words on paper is one thing, but seeing a character come to life on the movie screen creates a sense of actually having known the character in real life as a human being of flesh and bone and possessing an entire range of emotions which are generally shared by every person regardless of race or place of origin.
Bibliography

Faulkner, William. Nobel Prize Speech. 10 Dec. 1950. Rpt. On William Faulkner on the Web. 17 Jan. 2009. http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/lib_nobel.html.