What do you do when the well runs dry? If the well is our nation's schools and water is money, it is not a rhetorical question. The answer, all too often, is cut funding for art programs.
Students who attend a school where arts programming has been cut or eliminated may suffer in multiple ways if higher education is their goal. Certainly they will not have the benefit of enrichment that comes from art, but on a more foundational level they may also lack essential skills in college and later in life.
The concern is strong enough that the Boeing Corporation is willing to invest $300,000 over a 5-year period to provide arts programming in the schools. The project is called ACE, which stands for Art for Children's Enrichment. ACE will target specific rural schools in western Washington selected in collaboration with Boeing.
Between now and spring 2008, faculty members from numerous departments in the College of Liberal Arts will design a study that will create new knowledge about the role arts education plays in school children. Leadership at Boeing and CLA are hoping school programs can begin as early as next spring.
"This partnership between the College of Liberal Arts and Boeing is representative of what can happen when our foundation is the concept that science, math, and liberal arts are all important," said Erich Lear, dean of liberal arts. "We expect this research may strengthen the argument that exposure to the arts adds a layer of critical thinking ability, team building, and problem-solving skills that don't exist in managers who only grasp math and/or science."
The Chronicle, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University