Dive Brief:
- Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch writes in a Huffington Post column that arts education benefits has a "trickle-up" effect that can "transform societies for the better."
- Lynch argues that the arts increase employment rates by increasing the number of people graduating from college, citing his organization's research, which found that low-income students involved in arts education are more than twice as likely to graduate from college than their peers without arts education.
- Lynch suggests families use the Americans for the Arts toolbox, a list or resources and questions around arts education, to find out if a school has adequate art classes and, if they don't, to advocate for better options.
Dive Insight:
Lynch drives his point home by explaining how most people believe the arts and creativity are far more necessary for their work than they would have expected while in college, pointing to a survey by Adobe that found 78% of college-educated Americans found that creativity was critical in their careers.
While the Adobe study may be slightly skewed — a corporate lawyer is probably not filling out a study by the makers of Photoshop — Lynch's article highlights some clear issues that occur around the arts. Young students are encouraged to be creative, but then straight academic success is stressed more during high school and college despite many jobs these days requiring creativity. As more American cities make efforts to increase and strengthen their creative class, more young people who have spent time being artistic and innovative will be needed. To make his point on the power of art, Lynch starts his essay by noting a few common design elements you may take for granted. For example, he credits the iPhone's sleek appearance to a calligraphy class Steve Jobs took at Reed College.