The arts and liberal arts are at a crossroad. Many people question the value of the arts and liberal arts in preparing young people for their future careers. âWhat kind of career is possible with a history or English literature degree?â skeptics ask. Such questions entered the political arena in 2013 when Patrick McCrory, newly elected Governor of North Carolina, said that he wanted to base funding for public universities on post-graduation employment rather than enrollment. Kentuckyâs governor, Matt Bevin, also made similar statements in 2015.1 Rick Scott, Governor of Florida, suggested in 2015 that taxpayers should not foot the education bill for majors that have limited job prospects. Students, the governor said, should be encouraged to study science, technology, engineering, or math.2 President Obama once commented, while promoting job training, that âa lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career. But I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree.â3 And the arts fare no better. When a funding crisis hits public elementary and secondary schools, the arts are typically the first programs to be eliminated. Colleges and universities may soon follow the same path. Declining enrollments in some arts and humanities courses mean administrators are under pressure to either close or down-size departments, causing institutions to review and rank programs for possible closure.4 A recent Hechinger Report said that Indiana State University, as part of a comprehensive review, eliminated or suspended 48 academic programs.5 Art and history were two of those programs. In a major budget cut, the University of Southern Maine cut French, despite a significant Franco-American population in the state, and combined its English, philosophy, and history departments. Music , art, and theater were also combined. The University of Alaska Anchorage has considered either reducing or eliminating music instruction.
Why is there so little economic, cultural, and intellectual value placed on the arts in the United States? Perhaps it is because they are so little understood. The perception is that graduates find it difficult, as President Obama suggested, to earn a good living with a liberal arts or arts degree. A recent report from the Association of American Colleges & Universities and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems found, however, that liberal arts majors close the earnings gap by the time they reach the peak earnings ages, have low unemployment rates that decline over time, and disproportionately pursue social services professions.6 The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) reports that for âarts graduates 92% of those who wish to work currently are, with most (81%) finding employment soon after graduating. Two-thirds said their first job was a close match for the kind of work they wanted.â The report quotes Steven Tepper, formerly associate director of the Curb Center at Vanderbilt University and senior SNAAP scholar, as saying, âArtistic careers exemplify new ways of working in the growing contingent economy, and the experiences of artists might increasingly become the norm for many 21st century workers.â7 He further indicates that arts alumni have high rates of self-employment .
We can demonstrate statistically that students majoring in the liberal arts and arts can develop successful and remunerative careers; however, questions still arise about what role the arts and liberal arts should play in a studentâs education. Do the liberal arts and arts contribute to professional development? What do students learn from the liberal arts and the arts that will prepare them for a future career? Do the liberal arts and arts benefit students regardless of the career path they choose?
The Impact of Arts on Intellectual Development
Cognitive psychologists have described the ways in which the arts contribute to the education of young children and to the intellectual development of college students and adults. Business leaders and scientists have also commented on the importance of the arts in the development of human potential and professional skills.8
The National Endowment for the Arts published a white paper in March 2011 that examined the role of the arts in early childhood, adolescent, and adult older development.9 The report said that many studies had found that arts participation and arts education are associated with improved cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes in individuals across their lifespanâin early childhood, in adolescence and young adulthood, and in later years.
Developmental psychologist Howard Gardner is noted for his early study, published in 1973, on the artistic development of young children as a means to understand their cognitive development.10 He discovered that young children display significant aesthetic development as well as cognitive development and suggested that the concepts of making, perceiving, and feeling are of great importance in the developmental process. As Gardner continued to study cognitive development, he came to believe that there are different kinds of intelligences and different ways in which children learn. Initially, in 1983, he described five kinds of intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic, and personal.11 It should be noted that three of the five intelligences relate directly to the artsâ writing, music, and dance. More recently Gardner has thought about what kind of minds or mindsets people will need in the future. In his 2008 book, Five Minds for the Future, Gardner talks about disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical minds.12 Gardner believes that it will be important for people to develop at least one way of thinking that relates to a specific discipline, skill, or profession.
Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell has summarized the research concerning the amount of time it takes to become an expert in a given area, finding that it may take about 10,000 hours or ten years to achieve mastery.13 Thus a disciplined mind is one that can focus on a subject over an extended period of time. Our information age requires that people take information from an increasingly wide array of sources, objectively evaluate the sources, and then synthesize the information. Gladwell himself is a master at synthesizing, bringing together large amounts of information and developing a new interpretation or describing a previously unobserved trend. Creativity builds on discipline and synthesis to develop new and innovative ideas, solutions, or products. Creativity is necessary to maintain a vibrant economy as well as a responsive and stimulating cultural environment. In a fast changing and increasingly diverse environment, a respectful mind is also critical. Many educators and business people talk about the need for cultural understanding and appreciation of the diversity of our society. Respect is the foundation for understanding the beliefs and mores of cultures different from our own. Howard Gardner suggests that the ethical mind asks, âWhat is my role as a responsible citizen, worker, or friend?â The person with an ethical mindset looks beyond self-interest and seeks to take into consideration the impact of his or her actions on others.
Daniel Pink, in 2005, conceptualized the successful mind of the future somewhat differently than does Gardner. In A Whole New Mind he suggests that in the future the right brain that is associated with emotion, creativity, and intuitiveness will be increasingly more important.14 He further suggests that we are moving from an information age to a conceptual age. Many professionals, including lawyers, engineers, and accountants, rely on specific knowledge, while artists, counselors, and inventors rely on creativity and sensitivity to be successful. We need both ways of thinking for a healthy society and economy. We are tilting toward, if not relying more on, conceptual approaches to engendering progress, at least recognizing the need for both conceptual thinking and specific knowledge. The new economy that Pink envisions relies on six senses or attributes: design, story, symphony, empathy , play, and meaning. As the American economy has become more able to meet basic human needs, Pink suggests we will think more about design rather than basic functioning.
The emphasis that Steve Jobs placed on all aspects of design, from the computer or phone to its packaging, is a good example of the significance of design. âStyleâ sections of many newspapers often showcase functional items such as toasters or mixing bowls with designs that go beyond mere functionality. In the conceptual age, stories will become increasingly important. While we have a great deal of information that can be used to try to persuade people to adopt our ideas, we also need stories that help people understand problems and their possible solutions. Stories appeal to the emotions and can assist people in remembering the key points of a new approach. Knowledge has become increasingly specialized; solving our most pressing problems requires collaboration across disciplines. The ability to synthesize and also to collaborate are essential skills, and that is what Pink calls symphony. Problems cannot be solved by only looking at data; problem solving also requires the ability to see different perspectives and to understand feelings. Pink calls this ability empathy. Children and adults develop em...