On Arts Education

Education in the arts creates the opportunity to explore the world through culture. The arts can offer exploration and knowledge from a holistic, spherical, three-dimensional perspective rather than a linear construction of ideas. Even with this unique perspective on life and humanity, the arts at times are relegated to secondary status in the educational policies of the federal and state governments, driven by economic and political agendas. Additionally, arts courses in universities are sometimes given nominal attention in extra-curricular or elective courses, devoid of systematic and in-depth inquiry in classes designed to impart superficial appreciation for the arts or music in general. MIT professor Ellen T. Harris points out that science and mathematics courses would not be demoted to such status: “It would be difficult to imagine a course called ‘Science Appreciation.’”[1] Due partly to an emphasis on science and math at the university level, K-12 programs are offering students inadequate preparation for advanced studies in the arts; in some cases arts curriculum has been eliminated altogether.

Multiculturalism manifests itself in arts education, preparing students to study culture as it reveals itself through art in a particular time, place, and under varying political, religious, and civic issues. Cultures are identified by the arts they produce through music, painting, media, theater, and so on. For example, the International Center of Bethlehem is seeking to re-shape the common international perception of Palestinians through culture and education in its multi-faceted programs covering all of the above elements. The arts may also challenge the culture it comes from, often with repercussions against the artist as in the case of Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz being stabbed in the neck after the publication of Children of the Alley that described an alternative perspective on religion and sexuality in Egypt. Other negative responses may be censorship of musical works such as happened in the Soviet Union, or books as in Iran after the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Censorship occurs in the United States largely at the local level, with the banning of books from public and school libraries deemed evil or inappropriate by religious and parent pressure groups.

Bethlehem Star Music and Dar Al-Kalima College are working to engage students young and old to view their world liberally and objectively, using fine arts and music as a means to appreciating the beauty of the world we live in today.

[1] Harris, Ellen T. 1997. The Arts. In Handbook of the Undergraduate Curriculum, ed. Gaff, Jerry G., and James L. Ratcliff, 320-340. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc, 321.