Art as a Means to Attain Status

According to Dickie, status in the artworld is presented “in a way analogous to the way in which a person is certified as qualified for office, or two persons acquire the status of common-law marriage within a legal system, or a person acquires the status of wise man within a community” (Wartenberg 224). If this is true, then we may have been presented with the function of art.
In all of these examples, the status is conferred after certain actions are considered; a person is considered qualified for office if they have been properly educated and experienced; two people acquire the status of common-law marriage if they undergo the proper paperwork; a person is considered a wise man if he exhibits sufficient wisdom. In the artworld, the action which merits status is the production of art. So, according to this theory, art functions as a means to attain status in the artworld. Could this be its only function?