Why Study Art? | TateShots

We asked leading artists, actors, filmmakers, architects and choreographers why art should be on the curriculum. Watch their responses.

Should art be on the curriculum? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Featuring: David Hockney, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Michael Craig-Martin, Catherine Opie, Cate Blanchett, Anne-Marie Imafidon, Cornelia Parker, Wolfgang Tillmans, Amanda Levete, Tania Bruguera, Bob and Roberta Smith, Michael Clark, Jacqueline Wilson, Alan Parker and Jeremy Deller.

In October 2018, a landmark research project commissioned by Arts Council England – and involving schools and teachers who work with either the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) or Tate – outlined the overwhelmingly positive benefits of arts and cultural education on the lives of young people.

The research, 'Tracking Arts Learning and Engagement (TALE)', undertaken by the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, has led to calls for urgent change, as thousands of young people and teachers express concern over the impact that declining arts and cultural provision in schools will have on future generations.

#TateShots

[mr.ramjangles]

Years ago, I had a student in third grade with a heart wrenching background. He made zeros on his first three weeks of tests. It was my first year using art integration in core subjects. I discovered he could draw animals that looked like real photos. When I introduced yarn paintings, he asked if he could paint scenes using opposite colors, or the wrong colors as he said 🙂. I never would have known how gifted he was until I included ART! 🎨👍🏻. Soon, he came out of his shell, because he had something to share!

[ballsnow]

03:06 "Art can access a part of your brain, body, spirit, mind that nothing else can."

[williamwhite]

Imagination is greater than knowledge. Einstein

[Devotchik]

I'm one of Bob and Roberta Smith's ex students. Bloody loved my time at art school.. Doesn't have to be a fancy overpriced school, check out the names of the tutors there and research them.. School trends come and go but valuable time spent with a good teacher lasts a lifetime.

[aol]

Art is the finger on the pulse, expressing optimism or pessimism, drawing from the undercurrent of the society around them.

[jennyhughes]

Thank you for putting this up: I make a lot of art but am constantly in doubt about it - I ask myself (and others) 'what is art for?' n when I see all the countless brilliant artwork already in the world I wonder who on earth do I think I am to think my art might be interesting or add to our cultures. Thank you for making this and for putting it up here: the artists you chose say what art is for far better than I ever could and this film and what they say just might stay long enough in my memory (I've got a brain injury and big memory problems) to help me when I'm floundering in doubt and feeling terrible and that making my art is totally pointless. Well, actually, I'm pretty sure I'll forget but maybe then sometime I might remember or be reminded again...

[antonionegrini]

to be an artist for me is to redefine the boundaries of what it means to be human.

[noaminydiaabante]

Its really nice to have knowledge about art and why we have to study it. Life without art is meaningless . Thank you for giving us more insight so that we can really appreciate art.

[awh]

This sounds nice until you see how expensive art and design colleges charge in tuition. Got accepted to SVA and couldn’t go because the tuition was &68, 000 a year. Smh

[ballsnow]

03:37 "Art shows us what it is to be human."

[johncastle]

Art is freedom and freedom is dangerous to the establishment, as John Lennon said “not everything has to be wallpaper .”

[ricv]

Wally Hedrick, a long forgotten great artist, look him up, pointed out to me decades ago the three themes of art are Sex politics and religion

[stephendaedalus]

Didn't expect Cate Blanchett here. She's a marvelous actress by the way.

[ballsnow]

03:25 "Art teaches you to deal with the world around you. It's the oxygen that actually makes all the other subjects breathe."

[starjeweller]

Art is about highest sensitivity; different, unique, rarest, visionary... 💡view on the universe around&inside us.

[emreoz]

It's great to hear all this ideas, very inspirational 👍🏻

[taletree]

We are building a digital platform for kids to archive and show off their art or creative projects. Through this process, kids have the freedom to express their ideas and minds in whatever creative form they want. Each week, our kids gather with their group and discuss their creations. What they say about their own creations and others' is really interesting and amazing. I do think it's a really important thing for kids to understand that they have the freedom to create whatever they want to and then they take the take to discuss and reflect on their creations. That whole cycle nurtures their creative desires and abilities.

[ballsnow]

03:00 "That you can be whatever you want to be is something that art's only taught me."

[LATREVIGIANA]

“ Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere”. G.K. Chesterton

[ballsnow]

01:04 "Creativity is critical thinking and without it, how are you going to really open up and ask harder questions?"