'Is it art?’ It’s a question that has provoked, inspired and haunted the arts world of the past century. And, as I pass him a photograph of the Cambridge University Library, it’s a question that furrows the brow of the BBC Arts Editor.

Now one of the best known faces in arts journalism, the arts weren’t always the clear path for Will Gompertz. Leaving school at 16, he had ‘‘no plan; the plan was not to be at school’’. His first series of jobs placed him ‘‘just below the bottom rung of the ladder’’. But the turning point was a job as a stagehand at Sadler’s Wells. ‘‘That’s when I got interested in the power of art. You could see what it did to people...What drew me in was that the people involved with arts were really interesting.’’

And so he founded a publishing house. He founded a global arts magazine. He found himself a director at Tate. ‘‘Not to lose my job, that was my attitude starting there.’’ ‘‘I was the only non-academic. It’s the type of place where even the cloakroom attendants have a Double First in Fine Art. So I was quite ignorant.’’ But that was no bad thing – the opposite, in fact. ‘‘I represented the audience; I wasn’t a total specialist so I had some empathy with them.’’

Tate placed him at the heart of the contemporary art world. He was responsible for Tate Online, the UK’s most popular art website, and Tate Etc., its most circulated art magazine. Surely, then, here is someone who can answer the questions at the back of the minds of many of modern art’s audience. The ‘is it art?’ question. The ‘why is my bed a bed, when Tracey Emin’s is ‘art’?’ question.

The crux of the matter is, of course, our conception of art. ‘‘Duchamp would say, ‘because the artist selected it, that’s what makes it art.’ And also context...if you take a urinal and put it in an art gallery, and it ceases to be a urinal, then maybe it is art.’’

So is all ‘art’ art? It’s not that simple. ‘‘When you put it in an art gallery its purpose is to be art; the artist is asking that it be considered as art. That’s the limit to which they can go. It’s up to us to decide whether it is or not, and whether it’s any good or not...for me, art is something that has no purpose beyond itself; it has no function other than being art. But design has a function, and therefore your relationship with it is completely different.’’ ‘‘In a way, art in the twenty-first century is a way of looking at the world.’’

As for the U.L.? ‘‘No, it’s not art. It’s architecture, it has a function.’’ He guesses the architect, Gilbert Scott, straight away. ‘‘It’s got a gothic presence, he’s a brutalist modernist.’’ ‘‘It is what it is; it’s got its own beauty. I’d get rid of the pediment, but otherwise I’d learn to love it. I tell you what, if that became a major place for raves, nobody would feel intimidated.’’

Public interest in modern art has exploded. ‘‘I think it’s a fact to say that in no period of history has society been so interested in the art of its time as it is today.’’ But Gompertz’s task at the BBC is subtler than simply pushing arts up the agenda. ‘‘The truth of the matter is that most often the purpose of that arts story on the TV News is a bit of light, in all the shade. It’s knowing your role. We’re either ‘and finally...’, or at the top of the program, because somebody famous is dead. I think the arts have a really important role because actually the truth of life is that people are very wonderful, and doing very wonderful things, and that’s not really represented much within the rest of the News agenda.’’

Gompertz’s journalism is distinctive for its accessibility, in a time when art has gone through change that some have found alienating. As the importance of aesthetic beauty in art has shifted, and as scholarship has become couched in ‘-isms’, it has become all too easy for the non-expert observer to tell themselves ‘I don’t know art, so I can’t ‘get’ what I’m looking at’. But in Gompertz’s view such a self-disqualifying viewer disqualifies over-zealously: art is universal. ‘‘Even somebody with no education whatsoever, like somebody in a tribal outfit in the Amazon, or a kid at the West End who’s had barely any education, they still have an artistic impulse.’’ ‘‘It’s part of being human.’’

I ask if arts coverage can really be compatible with the BBC’s commitment to impartiality. Can he extract his taste? Should he? ‘‘I think the impartiality thing’s incredibly important in areas like economics and politics. In the arts, it’s less important. People do have a feeling of ‘come on, mate, you’ve seen it, what’s your view?’ If I say, ‘well on the one hand…’ I don’t think anyone’s going to be very impressed at that.’’ ‘‘If you’re asked a direct question, it’s legitimate to give a direct answer.’’

Broadly speaking, arts in the UK are enjoying a golden era. ‘‘I think that’s a reflection of what’s happening to the country, we’re becoming far more sensitive to aesthetics. People have much greater curiosity, and are interested in things in different ways; each person puts their own lens on the world. We’re living in a more intellectual society than we were.’’ ‘‘I think now we’re a more secular country, art galleries have a very specific place in our culture. We believe that they are places where you can say things that you wouldn’t otherwise say.’’

Yet there is room for improvement. In fact, there is need of it. Institutions like Tate dictate our tastes. Their small number of directors determine who ‘makes it’. Their sway is immense. "It’s a bit stuck," says Gompertz, "and it’s become a bit too institutionalised. The whole thing’s become quite predictable...I think someone like Banksy is a really, really, important artist; he operates completely outside the system. The establishment needs to stop being so controlling, and people need to rebel against it. The stuff that comes through the Turner Prize and the galleries all feels quite samey.’’

The answer, as Gompertz sees it, is ‘‘either artists coming out of the establishment and operating in different fields, or people being artists outside of the establishment, or people from different fields becoming artists.’’ He adds that this is happening, and will increasingly happen. And that’s exciting. As Gompertz predicts, ‘‘something radical is going to happen.’’