Inner-City Arts is pleased to have been featured in the latest issue of American Craft for their article “Why Making Matters,” alongside a handful of other arts education organizations around the country:
“It’s no secret that the arts are disappearing from American classrooms. In today’s high-stakes testing culture, public schools are under pressure to devote instruction time to subjects deemed more important, such as math and science.
Many argue, however, that the decline of K–12 arts education does a disservice to schoolchildren, and not just those with an artistic bent. Research (and everyday experience) suggests that art makes us happier, less stressed, more productive. James Catterall’s landmark 2009 study, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art, strongly connected arts learning with both academic success and social engagement, especially for low-income students. And lately creativity is being tied to innovative thinking across disciplines: The STEM-to-STEAM movement calls for adding arts to an integrated curriculum of science, technology, engineering, and math. As the National Art Education Association asserts, “to be successful in STEM-related career fields, students must be proficient in visual thinking and creative problem-solving facilitated by a strong visual art education.” In other words, art makes us smart.
So if evidence points to the benefits of art education, but schools are short on time and money, how do we get it to kids in a substantive way? Dedicated organizations and individuals are stepping up with various solutions to fill the gap. Here, we highlight a few inspiring models.”
