Art and Innovation

As the 21st century unfolds, we have come to embrace the reality that workers of the future will need fluency in four domains that cross disciplinary boundaries.  These are the oft-cited "Four Cs" of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. It's not a stretch for the average layperson to understand the first three as desirable outcomes of a good education, but creativity is often viewed as little more than enrichment; a nice bonus.  The reality, however, is that the ability to create - new solutions to complex new problems, even new content itself - has become an essential outcome of a sound education.

Arts classes and arts experiences certainly contribute to the development of creativity. But art and music class are not sufficient.  In order to fully actualize the development of creativity as a thinking skill, the strategies we implement in our arts programs cannot be limited to the visual arts studio or the music classroom. Full immersion in the arts and a broad integration of arts education across disciplines is necessary.

At its most basic level, art is about creating something out of nothing.  We most readily associate this with the creation of an image on a blank canvas or an opera on an empty stage, but the same creativity that artists call upon is required to design an engineering solution or start a business.  Math is not enough.  Science is not enough.  This is the reason that we place a co-equal value on our arts programs at St. Robert.  In other words, when we integrate arts and content, the art is not there to merely to support the attainment of something else.  It has stand-alone goals of equal importance.

Arts education is not only essential for those who will "become" artists in the sense of adding aesthetic value to the world on a professional level.  Today's reality is that in order to have unlimited access to doors of opportunity, the future workplace demands that our graduates are able to engage fluently in ideation, innovation, and creation.

Keen observation.  Focused critique.  Composition - of words or music or a painting. These skills transcend the boundaries of the art studio and have become the currency of a contemporary education.  This is why we invest over $125,000 a year in arts education and why we enhance those courses with integration of the arts into core academic content.  It's also why we provide rich immersion experiences like today's Opera for the Young, enjoyed by our kindergarten and elementary students, and the fifth grade Junior Docent Project, which launched this week.

Second trimester report cards will be coming home in just two weeks.  Be sure to help your children analyze their developing skills in art and music classes along with the academic core.  Be intentional about guiding them to value - and to grow - the eye and mind and heart of an artist.  A successful future depends on it.