The value of the arts in education

Arts education enables pupils to:

• Use their emotional and imaginative experience as part of their general development and to understand better the nature of artistic experience
• Take advantage of various activities and media designed to develop their skills and increase their knowledge and understanding
• Undertake a disciplined form of enquiry and expression
• Organise their ideas and feelings while understanding better the nature of artistic experience and the meaning of the arts
• Make an initial response to both their own personal experience and that of others, combined with undertaking observation, analysis and evaluation of such experiences

Participation and appreciation are complementary features of arts education.

Arts education values intellectual activity and development in the education of emotions and sensibility. An important part of the process is helping to develop the skills required to express this in a tangible form. This is clearly key to the education of all pupils, although especially important in the education of those pupils who demonstrate particular ability.

Much of what which constitutes good practice in education applies equally to arts education. Arts activity contributes significantly to the following:

• Visual accuracy, audio alertness, sensitivity to touch, coordination and overall sensory awareness
• Grace, poise and balance
• Increasing the ability of pupils to express ideas in precise terms
• Regular exercises in rigour and criticism that are open to evaluation and re-evaluation

The process of producing work in the arts whether through displaying at an exhibition, a publication, or a performance involves various forms of intense and challenging examination and critical appraisal. In this context, arts education builds on the work of others, taking good account of contemporary social circumstances, accommodating diversity of practice and encouraging personal autonomy.

These are key aspects in ensuring the achievement of high quality work for pupils who are committed to working in the arts. They are especially important in the education of those pupils who are talented. Such pupils need these experiences in order to:

• Recognise how best to develop their natural abilities into practical and intellectual skills
• Respond to the challenge of constant scrutiny involved in working alongside their peer group as well as other artists
• Regularly measure themselves against past performance and achievement

A significant aspect of the value of the arts in education is that the experience of the pupils and students is similar to that of the practising artist.