Benefits

How will students benefit from participating in an artist residency?
Organizations that participate in the artist residency program open the door to numerous benefits. Studies have shown a significant correlation between arts education and development and achievement. Skills developed through the arts are recognized by arts and non-arts communities as being essential in today's society. These skills, as noted by Robert Root-Bernstein, Professor of Physiology at Michigan State University, include the abilities to:

• observe acutely,
• think spatially and kinesthetically,
• identify the essential components of a complex whole,
• recognize and invent patterns,
• gain empathy with objects of study,
• synthesize and communicate the results of one's thinking, visually, verbally, or mathematically.

The artist in residence program also provides public education institutions with an outlet to meet the Pennsylvania education requirements for arts and humanities. Under the new standards, every student is required to have planned instruction in art, music, dance, theatre, and humanities.

Why is it important for every school to embrace the arts?

• Studies have shown that there is a significant correlation between arts education and student achievement.
• The arts, unlike other subject areas, are able to illuminate learning across all subjects in the curriculum. There is a strong link between the arts and the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which is concerned with unlocking the potential of every student learner.
• The arts are pervasive in everyday life. To not include the arts in education is to ignore a huge part of American culture, one that constitutes a $400 million business in Pennsylvania.
• The arts teach skills that are attractive to employers: creativity, problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and discipline.
• Understanding new perspectives and cultural diversity can be a natural outgrowth of teaching through the arts.
• State standards, which include arts education, must be met. The arts have been known to be effective in intervention and empowerment of at-risk students.
• The arts make learning fun! They encourage active, enthusiastic participation in the learning process, which can translate into greater confidence, self-esteem, and achievement in other academic subjects.