Intrinsic, Intellectual, and Economic Benefits of the Arts

Sujeet Kumar

EI Design

eLearning

09342504365, sujeetkumar_in@yahoo.comBlended Training: It Improves Your

Productivity

Why Advocacy? Arts advocacy is the fight for the return of the life of the spirit to

the centre of our existence... The arts are not at the top of everyone’s agenda. We can’t take public or private sector support for granted. We must marshall our arguments, make our points, deliver the statistics and data…[rolling out our arguments] bristling with facts and analyses, in the language of our target audience, to help us and our allies convince public and private funders, and to overcome oppositions…We must speak a business language, an economic language, a tourist language, the rock troop languages, popular music, chamber music, all languages, all levels…[w]e must speak all these languages...

—Shirley Thomson

Executive Director

Canada Council for the Arts

Intrinsic Benefits Intellectual Achievement in Other Subjects Arts and the Economy A Vision for Arts Education in Canada Why Now? Where is the Support? What is Required

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Intrinsic Benefits Nurtures habits of imagination and creativity Gives us tools, beyond words, to express what we

think, feel and know Central to maintaining and expanding our diverse

cultural legacies Helps develop understanding of multiple perspectives Improves the quality of our lives

Various sources, including: Armstrong & Casement (1997), Catterall (1998), Eisner (1991), Greene (1995), & Pitman (1998).

Risks

Some people don’t know what they’re getting into when they open up 30 personalities. They have to be very, very astute, but again, I think that’s the one thing I’ve learned about art. It’s not one clean pretty picture. You have to be really sharp to introduce the arts to kids. Really, really, sharp. What is it that it does to them, that turns them on and inside out?

—Helen Stencell, teacher

Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers of the 20th century. In his last essay, written at the age of 95, Russell reflected that the time had come to ask whether his life’s work had taught men and women “not to hate peoples other than their own.” The final lines of his final essay state:

There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let [the artist] loose to spread joy everywhere.

Mathematics & Arithmetic

Rules … creation Beauty and Paradox Culture of poverty

Intellectual Achievement

Learning through, in, and about the arts contributes to learning in other subjects by Developing thinking skills Contributing to self-confidence Developing different ways of making meaning Enhancing neural networks in the brain (Bruer, 1998).

Studies in the arts do not come at the expense of mathematics and language achievement Georgia study Austrian and Swiss students Learning Through the Arts™ (Canadian study)

Of the 841 elementary and secondary schools in Georgia where staffing and funding of arts programs was a priority, students had…

higher SAT scores were more likely to graduate with college diplomas,

and had lower drop-out rates

Music in World Cultures (1996). The Georgia project: A status report on Arts Education in the State of Georgia. St. Boniface, MN: Author.

There is nothing new about the relationship of the arts to other subjects. Nobel Prize winner John Polanyi relates how Leonardo da Vinci, arguably the greatest figure of the Italian Renaissance, was left by his sponsors “quite free to do science so long as it did not cut into his time for painting”.

Students in Austrian and Swiss schools who had 5 music classes per week instead of the usual 1 or 2 (at the expense of classes in mathematics and language) were as good in math and better in languages than their peers with regular schedules at the end of the 3 year study

Armstrong, A. & Casement, C. (1997). The Child and the Machine. Toronto: Key Porter.

Weber, E.W., Spychiger, M., & Patry, J. (1993). Music Makes the School. Schlussbericht zu “Bessere Bildung mit mehr Musik. Padagogisches Institut der Universitat, Freiburg/C.H.

25,000 middle school students showed strong associations between involvement in the visual and performing arts and subsequent achievement after controlling for family income and education levels

Catterall, J. (1998). Does experience in the arts boost academic achievement? Art Education, 51(3), 6-11.

http:www.aep-arts.org/highlights/coc-release.html

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No arts

With Arts

1995 SAT verbal and math scores for students with 4 or more years of fine arts courses were significantly higher than those of their peers who were not enrolled in arts courses

Fowler, C. (1996). Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling. NY: Oxford University Press.

Learning Through the Arts In the baseline data (1999-2000), the single greatest

predictor of academic achievement was socio-economic status as indicated by household income and mother’s education level.

But—it is also the case that those students who took music lessons outside of school scored significantly better on all language and mathematics measures than their peers, regardless of household income level and education. Why music? What cognitive links are there between music (beat) and rhythms of language? What other things do children who take music lessons do with their spare time?

Upitis, R. & Smithrim, K. (2001). Learning Through the Arts™: National Assessment Interim Report. The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada.

The Arts and School:Grade 4

Question or Activity % girls “stronglyagree

% boys “stronglyagree”

Happy to come to school 32 20

Do well at school 27 34

Good at dance 31 11

Good at drama 29 22

Good at drawing 33 39

Good at music 33 20

Good at singing 37 18

Think arts are important subjects 47 27

Arts will help find a job 49 41

Enjoy arts as much as other subjects 46 34

Would like more drama at school 36 24

Would like more visual art at school 61 50

Would like more dance at school 29 7

Would like more music at school 27 14

Out of School Activities

Activity % girls “stronglyagree

% boys “stronglyagree”

Watching television 27 55

Playing sports 42 59

Reading for pleasure 36 18

Doing art work 41 24

Listening to music 59 48

Playing videogames 20 60

Playing or working on the computer 36 44

Making things 37 24

Music Lessons and Preferences forOut of School Activities

Music Lessons Yes No

Television 30 43

Reading for pleasure 36 25

Videogames 29 42

The Economy Imagination and engagement required in the

workplace are nurtured through the arts

Conference Board of Canada (1999). Employability Skills Profile: What are Employers Looking For? Toronto, ON.

Major economic benefits from the arts, both directly… Job creation Increased property values Support to other business

… and indirectly Development of community networks City pride and prestige Transforming the responsiveness of service organizations Contributing to quality of life for people with poor health

Kelly, M., & Kelly, A. (2000). Impact and values: Assessing the Arts and Creative Industries in the South West. Bristol, UK: Bristol Cultural Development Partnership.

Economic Impacts of Arts and Culture in the Edmonton Capital Region (1997). Economic Development Edmonton, www.ede.org

Current State of Affairs...

The arts play a minor role in public education— music and other arts programs “have been under siege clear across the country” (Whyte, 1996)

Relatively few specialist teachers and consultants remain in schools and school boards

Too often ‘art’ in elementary schools is an “assembly-line version of art: colouring a photocopied face or decorating the walls with cat cutouts” (Allemang, 1996)

A Vision… to nurture lifelong habits of

imagination and creativity by ensuring that the arts form a fundamental and sustained part of the Canadian school system for all students

Public EducationGrowing up in a very low income family, music lessons were not an option. If it were not for the schools and the church, I would not have had the early opportunities for education and performance that these institutions offered me.

Ben Heppner

Canadian Tenor

Why Now? Vague and growing sense of need in the larger

society (something is missing from schools, lives) Interest in the business community to restore

what has been lost Major initiatives and new research in arts

education Curriculum leadership across Canada Builds on other initiatives of the Council of

Ministers of Education (Canada)

By investing in children and the arts, we are developing Canada’s great minds of the future.

Charles Baillie, Chairman and CEO of the

TD Bank Financial Group

What is Required K-12 curricula that are rich with ways of

learning through, about, and in the arts Teacher education programs that treat the

arts as “core” subjects Professional development in the arts for

generalist and specialist teachers Artist-teacher partnership programs Financial and instructional resources

Teacher Characteristics: Views on the Arts

Question % strongly agreeor agree

Arts fundamental to learning 98

Schedule one hour of arts/day 41

Students can express knowledge andskills through the arts

98

Frequently use arts as teaching tool 18

Arts increase parental involvement 80

Teacher Characteristics: Specialized Training

Subject % with specializedtraining

Language Arts 40

Mathematics and Science 24

Arts 22

Physical Education and Health 18

Second Language Instruction 16

Social Studies 15

What is Required Partnerships between provincial

jurisdictions, along with public and private sector champions of arts education, arts councils, community councils, and other organizations to: Share information on a systematic basis Identify successful practices Share instructional resources Promote research Establish tighter links with provincial and

municipal councils

Lifelong Learning

A lot of people, when they hear good music, say, “Oh, I wish I was so talented.” As if Segovia picked up the guitar one day and said, “My God! I’m one of the great classical guitarists!”… It’s from music that I learned that it takes many years to go from incompetence to being very good at something.

Nicholas ThorneM.A. student in Computer Science and

Philosophy

Think of something you love to do… What conditions must be present to sustain

you as a learner? How can the excitement of our personal

learning be brought to bear on policy? Professional practice?

What are the barriers?

Promising Two Things

Personal A Broader Circle …

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

—Margaret Mead

If we say that art, all art is no longer relevant to our lives, then we might at least risk the question “What has happened to our lives?”

Jeanette Winterson

ReferencesAllemang, J. (1996). Helping Picassos bloom. The Globe and Mail, November 23, 1996.

Armstrong, A. & Casement, C. (1997). The Child and the Machine. Toronto: Key Porter.

Bruer, J. (1998). Brain Science. Educational Leadership, 56(3), 14-18.

Catterall, J. (1998). Does experience in the arts boost academic achievement? Art Education, 51(3), 6-11. See also http:www.aep-arts.org/highlights/coc-release.html

Conference Board of Canada (1999). Employability Skills Profile: What are Employers Looking For? Toronto, ON.

Eisner, E. (1991). What really counts in schools. Educational Leadership, 48(5), 10-17.

Fowler, C. (1996). Strong Arts, Strong Schools. NY: Oxford University Press.

Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kelly, M., & Kelly, A. (2000). Impact and values: Assessing the Arts and Creative Industries in the South West. Bristol, UK: Bristol Cultural Development Partnership.

Music in World Cultures (1996). The Georgia project: A status report on Arts Education in the State of Georgia. St. Boniface, MN: Author.

Pitman, W. (1998). Learning the Arts in an Age of Uncertainty. North York, ON: AECO.

Upitis, R. & Smithrim, K. (2001). Learning Through the Arts™: National Assessment Interim Report. The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada. See also www.educ.queensu.ca/~arts.

Weber, E.W., Spychiger, M., & Patry, J. (1993). Music Makes the School. Schlussbericht zu “Bessere Bildung mit mehr Musik. Padagogisches Institut der Universitat, Freiburg/C.H.

Whyte, K. (1996). Why Johnny Can’t Sing. Saturday Night, June, 1996, 13-14.

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