Conceptual art(ists)

Just returned from a visit to an event organised by our local 'cultural promotions' unit.  I believe it's getting quite a bit of public money one way or the other and puts on several artistic/cultural events a year at various local locations.
I'm certainly not against the idea of a bit of culture being made freely available to the masses, but I am left wondering who decides what types of culture should be made available.  The local group is predominantly conceptual artists - I take this to mean that they're more into multimedia and challenging works rather than conventional painting and sculpture.
I'm sure I've put this elsewhere on my blog, but my definition of art is something that doesn't have a particular useful function but nevertheless enhances our lives.
Today's event was a bit of fun with public participation, so by that definition today's even works.  What I found rather disappointing was the quality of the workmanship on much of the artwork and many of the installations.  Loads of public money has been lavished on the buildings the artists in residence use, and much of their work (play?) is at public expense.  So why do the mechanics of the interactive installations keep breaking, or not work adequately.  Why do some of the artwork look as if they're constructed with kindergarten level skills and techniques.
I suppose what I'm saying is that while conceptual art with original ideas is fine, it does need to be backed up by the artists having the craft skills necessary to create a good quality artefact from their ideas.  Taking a toy and spray painting it gold, or bodging together a lot of cardboard tubes with duct tape really doesn't justify these artists having superb facilities provided for them - it's sheer self indulgence on their part to think the public must support them for their 'challenging ideas' when they don't have the basic artistic skills to produce the goods.
Lets get back to artists starting with the basics and doing an'apprenticeship' of conventional art before they're considered competent to move on.  And lets have the general public deciding what enhances their lives (and so is art) rather than allowing the art world to completely detach itself from the real world.