How Art Programs In Schools Provokes Creative Problem Solving

The fact of the matter is that the economy of the future requires art. It requires creative people developing new solutions for businesses, communities, and our world as a whole. In the past art was seen as superfluous, a fuzzy area in the humanities where practicality vanished. Just because art can be beautiful doesn’t mean it’s not essential, important, or impactful.

Making sure there is art in schools is about giving our children the tools to think outside the box, color outside the lines, and find white space to develop brand new ideas & solve the problems of the future.

In this sense, art isn’t extra, it’s required.

Mirrors and Windows

What’s incredible about exposure to art is that it can serve as a reflection of our experience (mirrors) or it can provide a glimpse of a world we don’t yet know (windows). And the thing is, it always does, because art provokes questions. 

Getting good at asking the important questions regarding a piece of art is similar to circumnavigating any problem to think critically about how we can solve it.

Art Engages

Whether a mural, an art gallery exhibition, set design, or music, art calls out to those who see or hear it and asks them to participate, inherently. Art gets kids thinking organically about:

1. How it was made

2. What they like about it,

3. Inspiration for making their own art, and 

4. Ideating around things that don’t exist yet.

The result is a school where engagement and creativity are implicit expectations for what being part of that community means. Art in schools implicitly tells the kids, “we expect you to wonder, critique, create, and solve.”

Art Is More Than Paint and A Canvas

Art in schools really is about so much more than students becoming skilled in the arts: it’s about facilitating the type of creative problem solving that pushes the world forward, creates value, solves pressing issues, and makes the world a better place. Learning to actively critique and create is the muscle all kids need to develop. It not only produces more aware, impactful adults, but it also has implications for our country in that creative business people create the companies that change our ideas about what is possible.

In the end, making sure our children have access and exposure to the arts in their schools, means engaging them in creative problem solving from a young age. So much so, that they reflexively think about innovation, value, and service in everything they do.

Art in schools = a better future. It’s that simple.

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