Margaret Atwood, left, Udo Jurgens, centre and Lang Lang wait to accept their awards in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. Their speeches were cancelled. (Reuters)

Canadian author Margaret Atwood was in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday with a speech prepared about the importance of art in the world's economy.

She was accepting the Crystal Award, which honours an individual highly regarded as a cultural leader, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010.

Her message to the assembled world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was going to be that art is as old as humanity itself, and cannot be killed no matter how much anyone tries, but it was never heard.

Atwood got to express her gratitude for the recognition, but the artists' speeches were cut due to time constraints, she wrote on her blog Thursday.

However, the author of The Year of the Flood and The Handmaid's Tale posted her defence of art on her website.

"It isn't a frill — something human societies can choose to indulge or to discard," she wrote. "Art isn't only what we do, it's what we are. Our musical and dancing and linguistic abilities appear to be built in to every single one of us, in every society on Earth.

"So it's not a case of whether or not we'll have art: it's a case of what sort of art we will have. Good, or bad? Old, or new? Our own, or somebody else's? Whatever the choices, any theory of humanity that fails to take account of human art fails indeed."

Artistic awards were also given to Chinese pianist Lang Lang and Swiss singer and composer Udo Jurgens.