Why ?

Why should painting or playing piano or writing poetry have anything to do with math or science? One obvious reason is that scientists, like artists, must learn to pay close attention-- both to detail and to the broader context. Scientists, like artists, are people who notice things. They not only see things that other people often ignore, they also see the frequently hidden links among disparate aspects of reality.

Mind Over Matter. Why the Arts Are Important to Science, K.C. Cole, Science Writer, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1998

Painting, piano playing, and poetry help put things in context, sharpen details, hone observations. They sort the essential from the peripheral, forge connections, find patterns and discover new ways of seeing familiar things. These are exactly the tools any good scientist needs. Mind Over Matter. Why the Arts Are Important to Science, K.C. Cole, Science Writer, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1998

BASIC ABILITIES -There is substantial evidence that working with the arts, especially in grades kindergarten through seven, develops students' minds and bodies in ways that enable them to learn better.

How Do The Arts Contribute Contribute to Education? An Evaluation of Research. Kent Sidel, PhD, Published by the Association for the Advancement of Arts Education, AAAE

Through arts training there are at least five specific types of abilities that teachers described as coming from arts students. These abilities are: 1) Express ideas and feelings openly and thoughtfully, 2) Form relationships among different items of experience and layer them in thinking through an idea or problem. 3) Conceive or imagine different vantage points of an idea or problem and to work toward a resolution. 4) Construct and organize thoughts and ideas into meaningful units of wholes. 5) Focus perception on an item or experience and sustain this focus over a period of time.

Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications" by Judith Burton, Robert Horowitz, and Hal Abeles, from the Center for Arts Education Research Teachers College, Columbia University, July 1999. Published in the compilation "Champions of Change"

Arts Students score higher on "Thinking Skills". ( CREATIVITY-Arts 37%, Low Arts 12%. ) (FLUENCY-Arts 31%, Low Arts 17%.) (ORIGINALITY - Arts 31%, Low Arts 15%) (ELABORATION-Arts 41%, Low Arts 11%) (RESISTANCE TO CLOSURE-Arts 35%, Low Arts 16%) (EXPRESSION - Arts 37%, Low Arts 9%) (RISK TAKING - Arts 37%, Low Arts 11%) (IMAGINATION-Arts 41%, Low Arts 14%)

"Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications" by Judith Burton, Robert Horowitz, and Hal Abeles, from the Center for Arts Education Research Teachers College, Columbia University, July 1999. Published in the compilation "Champions of Change"