Never really got why people debate questions this. It boils down to asking, "what are the definitions of the words 'engineer' and 'artist'?". And being that words are hopelessly overloaded, it's impossible to answer such questions without saying "Yes, if by 'engineer' you mean....".

The question to ask oneself is, what would be observably different about the world if engineers are artists, vs. if they aren't? Are we asking whether engineers should be eligible for the Turner Prize? Whether colleges should put an engineering professor on the Arts faculty? Or if there's no particular observable difference, then why not pick any old answer that pleases you?