From Americans for the Arts
National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign
Did You Know?
• The arts teach kids to be more tolerant and open.
• The arts allow kids to express themselves creatively.
• The arts promote individuality, bolster self-confidence, and improve overall academic
performance.
• The arts can help troubled youth, providing an alternative to delinquent behavior
and truancy while providing an improved attitude towards school.
An impressive 89% of Americans believe that arts education is important enough to
be taught in schools, but the sad truth is, your kids spend more time at their lockers
than in arts classes. Read the facts on how arts education helps kids do better.
Did You Know?
Young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days
each week through at least one full year are:
• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
• 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
• 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance
• 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem
Young artists, as compared with their peers, are likely to:
• Attend music, art, and dance classes nearly three times as frequently
• Participate in youth groups nearly four times as frequently
• Read for pleasure nearly twice as often
• Perform community service more than four times as often
(Living the Arts through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based Youth
Organizations, Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation
For the Advancement of Teaching, Americans for the Arts Monograph, November 1998)
The Facts: Art Education...
makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven
to help level the "learning field" across socioeconomic boundaries.
(Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School,
James S. Catterall, The UCLA Imagination Project, Graduate School of Education &
Information Studies, UCLA, Americans for the Arts Monograph, January 1998)
has a measurable impact on youth at risk in deterring delinquent behavior and truancy
problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those youth engaged
in after school and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.
(YouthARTS Development Project, 1996, U.S. Department of Justice, National Endowment
for the Arts, and Americans for the Arts)
Visit the Americans for the Arts
Website For More Facts on the Impact of Arts Education on Our Youth