Benefits of Arts and Culture in Education

"The creative arts fuel innovation and imagination, developing lifelong skills that help enable a student’s perception, understanding, productivity and wellbeing. Rather than a distraction, an arts education enriches and complements the core subjects, raising achievement rates across all subjects as well as improving wellbeing and enriching the school day. It offers a welcome break from the huge amount of desk-based learning the core subjects have to cover as well as providing a wealth of transferable skills, preparing them for further education and future career pathways.

On top of the obvious development of individual creativity and self-expression, the arts can increase young people’s confidence and motivation which in turn improves well-being and school attendance. Hands-on learning is enjoyable and engaging, helping students learn through experimentation and making mistakes. This learning extends across all subjects and time and again we see the aggregate benefits of cross curricular learning helping to improve academic outcomes.

An arts education benefits a student in so many ways, not least in boosting their academic performance in the arts subjects they love. There are also benefits of using arts and creativity as part of the wider curriculum which enhances the teaching of other subjects (such as English, History and Politics and Society). This then cascades across overall learning outcomes in core subjects. The Arts Council England conducted research on the value of arts and culture across schools in the US and found:

‘Schools that integrate arts across the curriculum…have shown consistently higher average reading and mathematics scores compared to similar schools that do not.’

The arts are also a vital part of a whole school ethos of cultural appreciation and diversity, equipping students with cultural knowledge and understanding that will enable them to make better sense of the world and their place within it. During an era when our students are becoming increasingly stressed, there is no better time to recognise the value of an arts education. Nicolas Serota, Chair of The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education summises:

‘At a time when the mental health of children and young people is of concern, there is ample evidence of the value and importance of creativity in supporting wellbeing. Young people can find strength, inspiration, consolation and community in their shared experience of creativity.’

The evidence is clear that Music, Art & Design, Drama and Dance bring tangible, valuable and long-lasting benefits.

Trinity College London – Arts Council of England

Note: The Senior Cycle Review: Advisory Report (NCCA, 2022) was published in March 2022. The Advisory Report informed the Minister’s plan for the redevelopment of senior cycle, which includes the introduction of a new Leaving Certificate subject of Drama, Theatre and Film Studies in September 2024.