Celadon founder Steve Russell likes to visit his daughter’s family in Kansas City, Mo., but he is always glad to get home.

“Kansas City is nice,” the New York City native said. “But Indianapolis is better.”

The difference? Our culture as defined by the arts.

Really.

“I’ve never lived in a city that it’s so easy to recruit people to,” said Russell, whose publicly traded trucking company made $566 million in revenue last year.

As a crowd gathered Monday on Monument Circle to make the business case for funding the arts, Russell’s take represents the businesspeople who know that supporting the arts is good business.

So it’s important to hear that the art groups spend $50 million with local business and generate another $48 million in economic activity in the city that means $4.5 million in tax revenue for the state. Especially when the city is lopping a third off its $1.5 million support for art, which Mayor Greg Ballard neglected to mention during his remarks.

But Russell — who collects Warhol paintings, commissions art for his company’s campus and sits on several museum boards — appreciates art’s intrinsic value. It’s who we are, and it’s who we want to be. If it helps Russell recruit top management from all over the country, so much the better.

It is worth noting — and is a hopeful sign — that the Indianapolis Museum of Art is led by Maxwell Anderson, who came here from New York, and that Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association chief Don Welsh hails from Seattle. They and many others chose to live and work here, in part, because of the city’s arts culture.

Angela Braly moved here a few years ago to take an executive position with WellPoint and now she’s the chief executive. She told the rally that art defines the city in a positive way. Stories about the local arts in national papers like The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times invariably marvel at the renowned competitions for violinists and pianists, the variety of museums and the increasingly active gallery community.

As a handmade sign in the crowd observed: “Indy Culture equals happy, healthy, educated, well- rounded Hoosiers.”

Why do you think Bloomington billionaire Bill Cook spends more than $200 million rescuing the West Baden and French Lick hotels? Why did former Cummins Chairman J. Irwin Miller pay the fees for a who’s who of architects to design 42 public buildings in Columbus? Why for nearly 30 years has machinery millionaire P.E. MacAllister funded the generous prizes in a national opera singing contest?

Two reasons: The artistry compels them, and it’s good for their communities.

Russell moved Celadon’s main office to Indianapolis from New York 11 years ago and is glad he did. Were it not for a speech in Orlando, Fla., on Monday, Russell would have been on the Circle cheering.

“Squeezing the arts is a short-term solution,” he said. “I hope we think better of it and do the right thing.”

Art is a “respite from the hurly- burly,” MacAllister said, a tonic even more important in recessionary times. The economic case for supporting the arts is compelling. Rallies with high-profile business types probably can’t hurt the effort to drive more dollars toward the arts.

Then again, it’s good to remember this: “There has to be more to life than tractors,” MacAllister said.

There is. It is art.