Quotations on Arts in Education

“We must…enhance the quality, the width, the scope and access of our arts so that every single child can grow up in a community where art is a part of their life.”
-Governor Arnie Carlson “State of the Arts Address” Dec. 12, 1996

“Music, to me, was and is representative of every thing I like most in life. It’s beautiful and fun, but very rigorous. If you wanted to be good you had to work like crazy. It was a real relationship between effort and reward. My musical life experiences were just as important to me, in terms of forming my development, as my political experiences or my academic life.”
-President Bill Clinton

“Art is humanity’s most essential, most universal language. It is not a frill, but a necessary part of communication. The quality of civilization can be measured through its music, dance, drama, architecture, visual art and literature. We must give our children knowledge and understanding of civilization’s most profound works.”
-Ernest L. Boyer, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

“I believe arts education…us one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just below the surface. They [children] have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity and visual imaginations that need training…training that prepares them to become confident young men and women.”
-Richard W. Wiley, Former US Secretary of Education

“Except for its educational opportunities, nothing strikes me as more important to Minnesota’s quality of life than its arts programs.”
-Elmer L. Anderson, Former Governor and Chairman, HB Fuller Co.

“What we need in this world is creative people, problem-solving people, people who have a sense of the wholeness of the project, and people who appreciate the values that are historically dear to us.”
-Roy Romer, Governor of Colorado

“Practive is essential to learning music-and anything else, for that matter. I like to say that the time spent practicing is the true sign of virtue in a musician. When you practice, it means you are willing to sacrifice to sound good.”
-Wynton Marsalis

“Do the arts contribute to the world of work? That’s for you to decide. But for me, they are among the most powerful ways we become human, and that is reason enough to earn them a place in our schools.”
-Dr. Elliot Eisner, Stanford University

“When I examine myself and my method of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing knowledge.”
-Albert Einstein

“The new workplace needs highly skilled people, people who have learned how to learn, to solve problems, and to think-people who can learn a specific job, and then learn another one. Cutting edge corporations are learning they must look to the arts to find the employees they need.”
-James R. Houghton, Chairman, U.S. Labor Dept. National Skills Standards Board

“The arts and humanities teach us who we are and what we can be. They lie at the very core of the culture of which we’re a part.”
-Ronald Reagan

“A grounding in the arts will help our children to see: to bring a uniquely human perspective to science and technology. In short, it will help them as they grow smarter to also grow wiser.”
—Robert E. Allen, Chairman & CEO, AT&T

“A broad education that includes the arts helps give children a better understanding of their world…We need students who are culturally literate as well as math and science literate.”
—Paul Ostergard, VP, Citicorp

“One of the most wasteful decisions any school could make would be to discard arts education as a ‘frill.’ The investment in a fine arts curriculum is repaid many times over by the quality of life it fosters in the community and by the growth it encourages in our most valuable asset: our children.”
—William E. LaMothe, Chairman and CEO, Kellogg Co.

“Rythum & Hues, the company that made [the movie] Babe, hired half of its digital artists from outside of the United States. Its president, John Hughes, says quite simply, ‘I blame it squarely on the educational system’Éan NEA study shows that the average Japanese student spends 14% of his or her time studying the arts; in the United States it’s less than 5%.”
— Romalyn Tighman, Arts Rag, 11/96, citing “Effects Firms Decry Lack of Arts Education,” LA Times, 1996