• The arts teach kids to be more tolerant and open.
• The arts allow kids to express themselves creatively.
• The arts promote individuality, bolster self-confidence, and improve overall academic performance.

– From Americans for the Arts

 “Introducing a child to the arts establishes an immediate link to a world of infinite possibilities, creates a timeless bond with the powers of the imagination, and initiates a lifelong relationship that will only deepen and strengthen over time.”

• The arts improve the school climate.
• The arts’ comprehensive tasks challenge students.
• The arts turn schools into communities.

• strengthens student problem-solving and critical thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success.
• helps all students develop more appreciation and understanding of the world around them.
• helps students develop a positive work ethic and pride in a job well done.
• makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the “learning field” across socio-economic boundaries.
• nurtures important values, including team-building skills, respecting alternative points of view, and appreciating and being aware of different cultures and traditions.
• can help troubled youth, providing an alternative to destructive behavior and another way for students to approach learning.
• teaches children the skills necessary to succeed in life, including developing an informed perception, articulating a vision, learning to solve problems and make decisions, building self-confidence and self-discipline, developing the ability to imagine what might be, and accepting responsibility to complete tasks from start to finish

“The arts develop a person’s imagination and judgment, permitting each individual, in Maxine Greene’s classic phrase, to create “as if” worlds, places where we see the world afresh.”

– Ramon Cortines in “Gaining the Arts Advantage”

• An arts education contributes to the quality of education overall and builds critical thinking skills.
• An arts education builds specific workforce skills that business values.
• An education in the arts builds values that connect children to themselves and to their own culture and civilization.

From “Educating for the Workplace Through the Arts”
Business Week

“Brain research is showing that the stimuli provided by the arts – pictures, song, movement, play-acting – are essential for the young child to develop to the fullest potential. These activities are the “languages” of the child, the multiple ways in which he or she understands and interprets the world. Active use of these forms also pave the way for the child to use verbal language, to read, and to write.”

From “Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections”

• An education in the arts encourages high achievement.
• Study of the arts encourages a suppleness of mind, a toleration for ambiguity to make trade-offs among alternative courses of action.
• Study of the arts helps students to think and work across traditional disciplines. They learn both to integrate knowledge and the “think outside the boxes.”
• An education in the arts teaches students how to work cooperatively.
• An education in the arts builds an understanding of diversity and the multi-cultural dimensions of our world.
• An arts education insists on the value of content, which helps students understand “quality” as a key value.
• Arts education contributes to technological competence.

From Arts for the Complete Education/
Florida Alliance for Arts Education

“Research confirms what we always knew intuitively: The arts teach all of us-teachers and students alike – innovation, novelty, and creativity. We learn to be wondrous.”

-Ramon Cortines in “Gaining the Arts Advantage”