Benefits of Arts Education 1: Art changes people

Today we'll begin a 10-part series exposing some of the research showing that arts education benefits students and adults in many ways, from better blood pressure to better performance on SAT tests.

Although most of the research is statistical, today I begin within an inspiring quote from master conductor, composer, and music educator, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990):

"The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed… because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may affect the course of events… by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think."

This capacity of art cannot necessarily be quantified or measured.  Nonetheless it is real.  Maybe that’s why art has been a part of the human experience for as long as we’ve called ourselves “human.”

Next post: Arts participation and SAT scores