We Are Arguing for the Arts in the Wrong Ways
10 Things We Learn from the Arts that No Other Subject Can Teach
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“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Thomas Merton
“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.” Ossie Davis
“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso
The heartbreaking and unexpected closure of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia this week has surfaced dangerous trend for the arts in recent years. It feels like we are all being shaken by loss after loss of cultural touchstones.
There are many reasons we know about for the closure, and some still being uncovered. But one is clearly a diminishing value being placed on the arts in schools.
Despite national surveys showing the public agrees that the arts are a necessary, the arts face being squeezed out of K-12 schools. There is a narrowing range of core subjects that count as academic. Fewer resources and decreased attention mean that students are not taking arts subjects once they cease to be compulsory.
Arguments to bring the arts back have been made about how arts integration leads to all sorts of other positive academic outcomes - like increases in test scores and math achievement.1
👉While all of this is well and good, this is NOT the right way to argue for the arts.
The Big Idea
How best can we amplify the necessity of art filled learning for an art filled world?
The arts must be justified in terms of what the arts can teach that no other subject can teach. Too many are arguing for the arts with the wrong data.2
Popular studies find a correlational relationship between the arts and academic outcomes.3 And while it might be true that the arts are related in some way to positive academic outcomes, identifying these relationships misses the point.
👉These outcomes should not matter.
The arts are valuable NOT because of their connection to other academic subjects, they are essential to a well-rounded education, a well lived life, an inspired culture, and to an open mind.
Let’s stop requiring more of the arts than of other subjects.
Making Big Ideas Usable
Here is a list I’ve been compiling from various sources. These ideas represent value that is uniquely derived from the arts.4
Art teaches us about the value of judgments. There are no correct answers.
The arts celebrate multiple perspectives and interpretations.
Learning through art requires an ability to surrender to unexpected opportunities of the work as it unfolds.
The arts teaches us that the limits of our language do not define the limits of our thinking.
Creativity is among the top five applied skills sought by leaders in 2024.5
The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
The arts help us learn to express what cannot be said.6
The arts teach us how to feel without words.
Art schools, and art in schools, symbolize our value in the arts.
The arts' in schools symbolize what adults find important.
👉How has the arts affected your life, learning and love?
The inherent value of the arts, their contribution to society, their symbiotic relationship with education and their economic power (but in that order) … this is the holistic case of support we need.
More support compiled from the National Arts Association Policy Database. And check out this gorgeous graphic full of data.
The People Based Learning Project
We are engaging in a conversation campaign to collect stories to define People Based Learning. Our goal is to create resources for people to learn to engage people as resources.
Care to join us? Check out previous posts on the topic here and here. And then:
Fill out an interest form. 👇
Within 2-4 weeks, you will be sent an email with date/time options.
If schedules align, we will send an invite to a Zoom to join a small group youth led dialogue that responds to this prompt:
Tell me about a time when you had a successful learning experience in which you significantly benefited from someone else's knowledge or skills. Follow up questions are tailored to groups and responses.
Conversations will be uploaded Cortico’s AI platform for human led sensemaking.
Would love to hear YOUR stories either in our conversations or in the chat👇.♥️
An Americans for the Arts report states that youth who participate in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
A study of at risk youth found that greater arts education led to fewer disciplinary infractions and higher attendance, graduation rates, and test scores.
A correlation means there is a connection between two things. But it doesn’t mean we know why that connection is there. Just because there is a connection (correlation) between art classes and test scores, it does not mean the arts are the cause of the increased scores (causation).
Students who take art classes may already be high achievers. Or perhaps students with lower GPAs are not taking art classes because their schedule is filled with enriching academic classes. There just isn’t data to support the idea that arts classes actually cause higher test scores or GPAs.
Approximately 73% of organizations surveyed in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Survey reported that creative thinking skills was a top priority for them when considering talent as we move into the future, agreeing that this skill set is increasing in relevance and importance.
Research on creativity shows that Nobel laureates in the sciences are 17 times more likely to be actively engaged as an arts maker than other scientists.