BY JENNIFER ROWLAND, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND ENGAGEMENT
WELCOME
to the
IMAGINATION
AGE
Researchers—
and alumni—
agree that an
arts education
can be critical
for future
success.
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Beike Bekker ’14, Netherlands, spent
the first part of the semester in her
International Baccalaureate art class
drawing a frog. It was a lovely frog, but
it sat forlornly in a sea of blank white
paper. Beike was stuck.
“I spent weeks staring at white
space and didn’t really get anything
done,” she says. “I told [IB art instructor
Colin Lanham] ‘I see the space as an
opportunity.’ He said, ‘I see it as a
failure. You haven’t taken any risks.’”
His words hit Beike like a bucket
of ice water. She suddenly realized she
was risk-averse, and it was hindering her
success. With new determination, Beike
grabbed colored pencils and started tackling the white, not knowing what would come
of it but confident that in pushing herself, she was heading in the right direction.
“It’s very easy to go along with things and not do things because they are scary,”
she says. “Freedom can be scary.”
Beike doesn’t plan on an art career—she’s interested in linguistics or sports science.
But the lesson she learned about risk-taking in Colin’s famous art room will serve her in
any profession she chooses to pursue.
21st Century Skills
In fact, a growing body of research supports the idea that an arts education—whether it
is in music, dance, theater, visual arts, or film—is critical in developing the kind of skills
students need for success in the 21st century. A study by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is based in Paris and counts 34 member
and partner countries, found that “students who participate in a large number of art
courses (likely a mixture of kinds of arts courses)
have higher educational achievement (as measured
by grades in school and scores on verbal and
mathematical standardized tests) than those who
take fewer or no arts courses.”
Fran Smith, a contributing editor for Edutopia,
an online journal published by the George Lucas
Educational Foundation, wrote, “Involvement in
the arts is associated with gains in math, reading,
cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal
skills. Arts learning can also improve motivation,
concentration, confidence, and teamwork.”
The International Baccalaureate Organization
(IBO) is jumping on the bandwagon: Next year, it will
undertake its own study of the impact the arts can
have on student success.
“Universities are saying that students who aren’t engaged in the arts are actually
quite stuck,” says Christine Haaf, IBO curriculum manager for music and dance.
“Students who explored the arts were used to getting feedback and were less likely to
fall apart under pressure. They also were more likely to collaborate.”
Kelvin Williams, the IBO’s head of curriculum for individuals, societies, and the arts,
says the impact goes well beyond university success. “We’ve been through the Industrial
Revolution and the Information Age. Now we are moving into the Imagination Age,”
he says.
Group 6 Defined
Known as Group 6 in IB parlance, the arts are optional for IB students: They may choose
either an arts subject from Group 6 or a second subject from Groups 1 to 5. Those
groups include language and literature, language acquisition, mathematics, experimental
sciences, and social sciences (known as individuals and societies).
No one at the IBO is pushing for the arts to be required—“We wouldn’t want
students to do it because they have to; that would undervalue the experience for those
students who are really passionate,” says Michael Bindon, IBO curriculum manager for
theater, film, and visual arts. Rather, the IBO hopes that its research will foster deeper
appreciation for and understanding of the role the arts can play in broader
academic success.
Group 6 subjects incorporate technical training (learning to use oil paint or playing
a set of chords, for example) but also require students to study and understand the
theoretical, cultural, and historical aspects of their chosen subject. UWC-USA’s rich
student diversity plays a critical role by exposing students to a vast population of
cultures and countries. Music classes are enriched by young musicians who bring unique
instruments from home, art classes benefit from students who are differentiating
between art and craft for the first time, and dance students are exposed to a range of
styles that would be unheard of in typical classrooms.
Of the 803 IB Diploma schools in the U.S., UWC-USA is one of only 37 that offers
a full slate of IB arts classes. It’s a significant feature, considering the size of the student
body and the relatively small number of faculty (three full-time instructors and a
handful of part-time teachers). Eighty-three of the school’s 219 students are enrolled
in IB arts courses, which include visual arts, theater, music, and dance. Countless others
participate in the arts through extracurricular activities such as two choruses, the dance
ensemble, and small musical groups.
“In a way, it’s like being at a school for the arts because the students here are so
talented,” says IB dance teacher Kathleen Kingsley.
“It’s very easy to go
along with things
and not do things
because they are
scary. Freedom can
be scary.”
—BEIKE BEKKER ’14
Achieving Balance
One benefit UWC-USA offers over an art school, however, is balance. Alumni say they
appreciated not having to choose between specializing in art or a more “traditional”
subject like math—they could do both. That’s what Diego Ramos Rosas ’08 and Daniel
Tan Ooi Peng ’03 did.
Diego, who has been playing instruments since he was 4, knew he would attend a
secondary school with a music program. But he also wanted a well-rounded education.
At UWC-USA, he gave equal time to all his classes and earned a place at Brown
University in Rhode Island, where he majored in economics and music. Today, he holds
down two jobs: one as a conductor, and the other as a consultant at a management and
development firm in his native country of Peru.
“Part of my success as an economist comes from my arts education,” Diego says.
“When you work in the arts, you encounter a lot of very difficult moments. There are
hard deadlines for performances, and you work with temperamental people who have
strong ideas. Music gives you a way of planning, organizing, and looking at things.”
When Daniel entered UWC-USA as a student, music was not at the top of his
agenda. He had dabbled, but pursuing music was not considered a priority in his home
7
country of Singapore. At UWC-USA, he picked up the flute. “[IB music teacher Ron
Maltais] made it possible for me to find my voice,” Daniel says.
Like Diego, Daniel majored in music and economics as a student at Vassar in New
York. “I ultimately made a decision that I wanted a more stable future and went into
investment banking,” he says. Daniel is now pursuing an MBA at Stanford University, but
he’s discovered a cadre of MBA students who share his passion for music. They regularly
gather for open mic nights. “The side effect of picking up the flute late in life is that it
made me unafraid to try new things,” Daniel says.
Creativity and Confidence
“The future belongs to
artists and designers,
photographers and
illustrators. It belongs
to creators and
empathizers, pattern
recognizers, and
meaning makers.”
8
—DANIEL PINK
“I don’t know how many subjects have as much risk-taking built into them as the arts
do,” Colin says. “It’s not as obvious in a math class, but it’s very obvious in the art studio.
Students are doing stuff they never tried before. It’s another way of learning that can be
very applicable beyond the art studio.”
Anga’aefonu (Fonu) Bain-Vete ’03 spent many happy hours in Colin’s art room.
Today, she’s a working artist in Australia; she paints, draws, creates jewelry, and has her
own design label. “One of the most important things I learned in Colin’s class was to
laugh at myself enough and to take myself seriously enough,” she says. “I learned to
give my experiences validity and humility—to allow myself to explore the weight of the
world and to make fun of it and myself in it. As an adult, I constantly put this skill to use
professionally and personally.”
The confidence Fonu developed at UWC-USA helped propel her formal art training,
first at the San Francisco Art Institute and then at Monash University in Melbourne,
Australia, where she received a Master of Visual Culture. Self-confidence—along with
critical and creative thinking, motivation, and the ability to communicate and cooperate
effectively—are skills that the OECD report says are “considered critical for innovation.”
It’s a fact that business leaders are well aware of. In 2001, Robert A. Lutz was hired
to ramp up car manufacturer General Motors’ product development. His approach,
he told The New York Times, was to look to his creative staff. “I see us being in the art
business,” he says. “Art, entertainment, and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally, also
happens to provide transportation.”
Author Daniel Pink, who has written extensively on creativity and motivation,
famously called the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) the new MBA (Master of Business
Administration). “Today, the future doesn’t belong to … engineers, lawyers, and
accountants,” he says. “It belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different
kind of mind. The future belongs to artists and designers, photographers and illustrators.
It belongs to creators and
empathizers, pattern recognizers,
and meaning makers.”
And risk-takers.
“My motto is, ‘Risk. Fail. Risk,’”
says Bryce Thweatt ’15, UWAKY, who is taking IB theatre this
year. “The more you stretch, the
more you grow. Failure is a part
of success because I’m always
learning what I need to do in
order to succeed.”