Quotations about Personal and social development of children and youth

Learning in and through the arts enhances learning in other domains and general scholastic achievement

"Drawing helps writing. Song and poetry make facts memorable. Drama makes history more vivid and real. Creative movement makes processes understandable." (Murfee, 1995)

“Arts learning, involving as it does the construction, interweaving, and interpretation of personal and socio-cultural meaning, calls upon a constellation of capacities and dispositions which are layered and unified in the construction of forms we call paintings, poems, musical compositions, and dances. Many of these same competencies and dispositions extend to other subject domains where they coalesce in equally distinctive forms – mathematical, scientific, linguistic – as pupils organize different kinds of meaning, insight, and understanding.” (Burton, Horowitz, & Abeles, 1999)

“Creative activity is also a source of joy and wonder, while it bids its students to touch and taste and hear and see the world. Children are powerfully affected by storytelling, music, dance, and the visual arts. They often construct their understanding of the world around musical games, imaginative dramas and drawing.” (Murfee, 1995)

“Seventy-five percent of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild students go on to college. An after-school program for at-risk high school students at a community arts center in Pittsburgh, the Guild’s extraordinary success shows how valuable community arts groups can be to school districts.” (Murfee, 1995)

The arts build resilience and self-esteem in young people

"Creative art activity allows the adolescent to gain mastery over internal and external landscapes by discovering mechanisms for structure and containment that arise from within, rather than being imposed from outside. The artistic experience entails repetition of actions, thoughts or emotions, over which the adolescent gains increased tolerance or mastery. While providing a means to express pain and unfulfilled longings during a distinct maturational phase, the arts simultaneously engage the competent, hopeful and healthy aspects of the adolescent's being." (Milkman, Wanberg, Park Robinson, 1995)

“When children's efforts culminate in a performance or exhibition, they have a chance to experience meaningful public affirmation, which provides them with some degree of celebrity. For those few minutes, children are in their own eyes every bit as important as anybody – any TV, sports, music, movie or video idol. This can be an experience of particular potency for youngsters whose lives are primarily characterized by anonymity and failure.” (President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, 2005)

“Changes in body image may be expressed through movement and dance. Drama offers the opportunity to explore identity by integrating childhood roles and experimenting with future possibilities. Music expresses emotional dissonance and volatility. The visual arts provide a vehicle for translating inner experiences to outward visual images. Writing and oral history projects bring a greater understanding of one's family and neighborhood.” (President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, 2005)

The arts contribute to creating healthy and supportive communities for youth

“Because dance, music, photography and other visual arts transcend language, they can bridge barriers among cultural, racial and ethnic groups. The arts also can promote a deeper understanding of similarities and differences among religions, races and cultural traditions. For some children, the exploration of their unique cultural histories can be critical to their sense of themselves and to others' images of them. This knowledge can help bind them more fully to the larger society of which they are a part.” (President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, 2005)

The arts help in the successful transition to adulthood and the development of in-demand job skills

“The one constant is the transformational experience that occurs for a young person that can change their life forever.” (Hill Strategies, 2004)