What do students learn through the arts?

• A creative, competitive edge

• To solve problems and make decisions

• To think creatively

• Increased self-esteem and self-discipline

• To articulate a vision

• The ability to imagine what might be

• Responsibility to complete a task from start to finish

The arts are among society's most compelling and effective paths for developing 21st Century Skills.

8 Artist Habits of Mind

• Develop Craft: Learning to use tools, materials, artistic conventions; and learning to care for tools, materials, and space.

• Engage & Persist: Learning to embrace problems of relevance within the art world and/or of personal importance, to develop focus conducive to working and persevering at tasks.

• Envision: Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed, and imagine possible next steps in making a piece.

• Express: Learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning.

• Observe: Learning to attend to visual contexts more closely than ordinary “looking” requires, and to see things that otherwise might not be seen.

• Reflect: Learning to think and talk with others one’s work or working process, and learning to judge one’s own work and working process and the work of others.

• Stretch & Explore: Learning to reach beyond one’s capacities, to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes.

• Understand Arts Community: Learning to interact as an artist with other artists (i.e., in classrooms, in local arts organizations, and across the art field) and within the broader society.

Studio Habits of Mind from Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education, Hetland, Winner, et al, Teachers College Press, 2007.