Why Learn Art?
"With the arts, children learn to see. We want our children to have basic skills. But we also will need sophisticated cognition, and they can learn that through the visual arts."
- Professor Elliot Eisner,
Professor Emeritus of Children Education,
Stanford University -
"While students in art classes learn techniques specific to art, such as how to draw or how to mix paint, they're also taught a remarkable array of mental habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools."
- Professor Lois Hetland & Dr Ellen Winner,
The Studio Thinking Project,
J. Paul Getty Trust -
Which of Those Skills Are Taught in Schools?
- We might find a few art classes, a few "creative writing" classes and perhaps courses in music;
- But it's unlikely that we would find courses in imagination, in visualization, in perceptual or spatial skills, in creativity, in intuition, in inventiveness as a separate subject
- "Yet educators value these skills and have apparently hoped that students would develop imagination, perception, and intuition as natural consequences of training in verbal, analytic skills."
- Betty Edwards,
"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain",
The standard textbook for many art schools -
Benefits of Learning Art
Learning Visual Art Helps to Develop the Visual Perception System, Which is an Important Stage of Child Development1
- The visual perceptual development of the child emcompasses sight, action, and thought
- Visual art developed metacognition because it required participants to constantly evaluate and make decisions
- The most significant findings from the study have demonstracted the importance of vision in learning
- The visual system has several critical periods of development throughout the primary and secondary levels of education
- Critical periods have been determined to be accelerated periods of learning that if missed, individuals have no ability to adapt2 and function in the affected domain (e.g., vision, language) and may not fully recover in adulthood3
1. Teaching Visual Art with The Brain in Mind, Karen G. Pearson, 20192. Hofstetter, Sabbah, Mohand-Said, Habas, Safran, & Amedi, 20193. Nelson, & Gabard-Durnam, 2020Long-Term Participation in Fine Art Activities Offer Advantages Related to Mathematical Reasoning
- Brezovnik, Anja, 2015 -Young people who participate in the arts for at least 3 hours on 3 days each week through at least 1 full year are:
Participating in Fine Art Activities can Improve Mental Well-Being1
- Children need an outlet in today's society to release energy, anger, and stress; and art making can provide this outlet through lessons that allow for open-ended responses
- Art is more expressive and constructive than violence and vandalism
- When students are given an opportunity to create a work of art, they use thought processes
- Students do not merely create a work of art, but rely on cognitive processes, such as decision-making skills, problem-solving skills, and their inner self
1. The benefits of art for elementary students: an analysis of patterns in selected studies, Melissa J. Hutson, 1998
