Arts Education in a Changing World

Abstract

Studies have shown the importance of the arts in education within the United States, examining the promotion of various benefits from increased self-esteem to greater complexity of thinking to higher graduation rates. And yet, schools and universities are slashing arts budgets and eliminating programs. The author proposes that to claim a place in the future, arts education must look outward at the enormous changes currently experienced by societies around the world, including demographic shifts, the rise of technology, and a decrease in attention spans. He urges artists and arts educators to respond to these developments with a fundamental reorganization, branching outwards to undertake a three-part mission that continues to embrace the art while also addressing a civic dimension and an explicit ethical dimension. The author argues that this new, larger, civically, and socially engaged role is the growth sector in the arts as artists, art educators, and organizations attune themselves to the potential civic impact of their work. He explains that this shift is transforming pedagogy, transforming interest in the arts, transforming public conviction that the arts are increasingly essential in these difficult times and that indeed the arts are not part of the need, but part of the solution.