21 Reasons
TOP 21 REASONS TO SUPPORT ARTS EDUCATION
Research shows that children whose education includes a visual arts component have consistently out-performed those who do not have fine arts enrichment, no matter what their socioeconomic level.
Art teaches students:
- How to make good judgments about qualitative relationships
- Problems can have more than one solution
- (To celebrate) multiple perspectives
- Complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity
- (Make vivid) the fact that neither words in their literal form nor number exhaust what we can know
- Small differences can have large effects
- To think through and within a material
- How to learn how to say what cannot be said
- To have experience that can be had from no other source
- The arts are fundamental to our humanity and help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures, ethnicities, or generations.
- A vibrant arts community leads to higher civic engagement, more social cohesion, and lower poverty rates
- Healthcare institutions are providing arts programming for patients, families, and even staff because of their healing benefits
- The arts — music, creative writing, drawing, & dance — provide skills sought by employers of the third millennium
- Students with an education rich in the arts have higher GPAs and standardized test scores, lower drop-out rates, and better attitudes about community service
- Children motivated by the arts develop attention skills and strategies for memory retrieval.
- Students with four years of arts or music in high school average 100 points better on their SAT scores than students with one-half year or less.
- Creative industries are arts businesses ranging from nonprofit museums, symphonies, and theaters to for-profit film, architecture, and advertising companies.
- Arts travelers are ideal tourists — they stay longer in the traveled destination and have a stronger economic impact due increased spending.
- Non-local arts audiences spend nearly twice as much as local arts attendees — valuable revenue for local businesses and the community.
- Arts organizations are responsible businesses, employers, and consumers. Investment in the arts supports jobs, generates tax revenues, and advances our creativity-based economy.
- The arts are recognized as a core subject in the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which places arts education at the same level of importance as STEM subjects.
Sources:
- Eisner, Elliot. (2006). The Arts and the Creation of Mind.
- Cohen, Randy. (2011). 10 reasons to support the arts.
- Collins, Donna. (n.d.). Eight Reasons for Supporting Quality Arts Education Programs…