is art only for the initiated?

Hearing someone talk about Olivier Messiaen on the radio the other day, I started thinking about this again. I'm ready to admit that Messiaen is a good composer, but I can't say I really want to listen to it much. I have a feeling, however, that it's one of those things that will grow on you the more you're exposed to it. That definitely happens with opera and other classical music. Exposure to classical music gives one a greater appreciation for it, and some great works get better and better the more you hear them (as opposed to the top forty, which tend to get worse and worse). Training in music technique and theory make it even more enjoyable. I can't really speak about the visual arts because I've had so little experience with them, but what little I have learned has made a world of difference in how I think during my visits to the art gallery. (Mind you, even when all I can do is stare at the visual stimuli, being completely ignorant of everything else going on, I always like the art gallery) All I'm trying to say is that it really does appear to be the case that some kind of 'initiation' creates a different taste for art.

Questions: Does all good art 'improve' for us the more we're exposed to it. Do we all have this inner knowledge of what is good? Where does taste fit in? Is something definitely good if ppl who've been around a lot of art say it's good?

I think that the idea of the 'initiated' that I don't like involves some sort of secret inaccessible gnosticism. This is totally different from just having been around art a lot. It's even different than talking and thinking a lot about that art. That's not some cliquey club it's just something that gets more enjoyable and plays a bigger part in forming you if you've put a little work into it.

But we always have to be willing to think and make a judgment call. You have to be willing to say that some art is bad. If there is such a thing as truth and right and wrong then it has to apply not only to whether or not you have to pay your taxes and tell the truth but also to whether something is good to look at or listen to.