Executive director at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, Risa Hunter explains the importance of engaging with art at every level.
“I am not creative. I can barely draw a stick figure.” It’s a phrase I often hear mumbled by friends, family members or colleagues. It never ceases to surprise me how quickly we categorise ourselves in such polarising terms. We are either “talented artist” or “not creative at all.” The pervasive nature of this statement that we hear—or say aloud—exemplifies the misunderstanding of what it means to be creative. And the implications are significant.
Our culture has shaped a narrative in which arts engagement and education are experiences that we believe can be “turned on” and “turned off.” You walk into an art gallery, immerse yourself in the art, and then walk out and carry on with your day. You pick up a pencil, doodle in your notebook, and then put the pencil down. This limited view encourages us to believe that “art” is simply entertainment or a form of escape, rather than something that inherently lives in us and must be nurtured.
However, scientific studies that link human biology to aesthetic engagement increasingly show that lifelong formal and informal education in the arts is connected to overall health. A revolutionary new book published in 2023, Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, provides mounting evidence that the arts can address a number of physical and mental health issues by changing us on a cellular level. The authors’ research reveals “that whereas a pharmaceutical drug treatment works on one or maybe two pathways, the arts have the ability to trigger hundreds of mechanisms that work in concert.” With increasing evidence that the arts have brain-based effects on mental health, an urgent argument must be made for arts education as well as for personalised arts-based prevention and wellness programmes.
I am not creative. I can barely draw a stick figure.” It’s a phrase I often hear mumbled by friends, family members or colleagues.
Risa Hunter
Despite increasing scientific evidence supporting the benefits of arts education, we don’t yet have sufficient understanding of these advantages. Even with the substantiated data that exposure to the arts has important developmental benefits for school-age children, such as improved self awareness, agency, communication skills and critical thinking, art education is still often perceived as an add-on to core educational topics rather than as essential for creating necessary employability skills, particularly in today’s technology-driven world. On this point, Gerald Gordon, president of the Virginia Economic Development Authority declared that “creativity will be the currency of the 21st century.”
Recently, I was speaking to a parent whose mature children are in their twenties and working within the corporate sector. She encouraged them at a young age to engage with arts and design education, which they continued through university although they did not go into creative careers. She told me: “I watch them now and see the way their creative brains translate to career success in the business sector. The way they view the world and think through solutions to problems is, in my mind, directly related to their creative education.”
The value of possessing a creative brain lies far beyond drawing a stick figure. It is said that at its core art education creates big thinkers; design education creates problem solvers. Art is about asking big questions, exploring diverse perspectives and challenging societal norms. Designers are examining complex issues and looking for solutions that are intentional and aesthetically driven. These assets are clearly valued by those who put the “A” for “ART” into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (that is, STEM to STEAM education).
With this deepened understanding of the broader benefits of art and design education, we can all work towards expanding the opportunities in these disciplines. Policy makers can continue to value art in schools and in the community, parents and guardians can look to expose children to the arts regardless of their “deemed creative talent,” teachers can continue to motivate their students and advocate for creative learning opportunities, and philanthropists can prioritise working with institutions and grass-roots initiatives that focus on creative development. Together we can help ensure that this generation and the next have opportunities to acquire the currency of creativity.
