In a recent report, Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, published jointly by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the Arts Education Partnership, several independent researchers concluded that engagement in the arts nurtures the development of cognitive, social and personal competencies. Arts programs can increase academic achievement, help decrease youth involvement in delinquent behavior and improve youth attitudes about themselves and the future.

More specifically, researchers found that learning in and through the arts:

Contributes significantly to improved critical thinking, problem posing, problem solving and decision-making;

Involves the communication, manipulation, interpretation and understanding of complex symbols, much as do language and mathematics;

Fosters higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation;

Regularly engages multiple skills and abilities; and

Develops a person’s imagination and judgment.

While many types of after-school programs provide important access, extension and support to children’s learning and social development, those that include the arts add a special dimension, outlined below. Furthermore, after-school programs add important elements to in-school arts curricula through extended engagement with the artistic process beyond the usual 45-minute school periods. Extra time for instruction and structured exploration give students more satisfactory opportunities for self-expression or development of their abilities in one or more art forms. This, in turn, enables these young people to develop the motivation, skills and discipline necessary to make meaningful contributions to solo or group projects. They learn about the importance of high standards of achievement for themselves and others. They experience what it means to maintain focus and how sustained practice can lead to higher levels of proficiency.

Research shows that children who participate in after-school programs generally attain higher academic achievement, behave better in class, handle conflict more effectively and cooperate more with authority figures and with their peers than their counterparts who are not in after-school programs. (This research is summarized in the publication Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids released in 1998 by the U.S. Department of Education and revised in April 2000 as Working for Children and Families: Safe and Smart After-School Programs.) Arts learning experiences can alter the attitudes of young people toward themselves and each other. For example, students involved in sustained theater arts (scene study, acting techniques, dramatic or musical theater production) often show gains not only in reading proficiency, but also in self-control and motivation and in empathy and tolerance for others. Arts activities can promote shared purpose and the team spirit required, for example, to perform in an ensemble music group or to design and paint an urban mural.

Learning in and through the arts can even help students overcome the obstacles of disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, one of the Champions of Change reports, using data from a study that followed over 25,000 students for 10 years, found that students consistently involved in music and theater show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12—regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Schools and youth organizations have indicated that the most important factor in the success of their programs is the relationship between participants and the adults who work with them. After-school arts programs give young people direct contact with artists and other professionals who work in arts organizations. Young people in these programs gain substantial learning and practice opportunities with adults and older youth who serve as teachers and mentors. These professionals do not replace in-school arts teachers, but they do support, supplement, and enhance in-school education.

According to Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education, released in 1999 by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the Arts Education Partnership, the most critical element in sustaining arts learning efforts appears to be active community involvement in shaping and implementing policies and programs. After-school programs offer outstanding opportunities to engage community resources, such as symphonies or museums, which in turn engage their own networks, volunteers, suppliers and others. These resources can then be applied to in-school programs as well, thus supporting and enhancing the work of professional teachers. Several of the examples cited below demonstrate how in-school and after-school programs can work together as part of a comprehensive, district-wide and community-wide strategy to give all children a top-quality education in the arts.