11. Opportunities For All Levels
In the arts, you can find a home no matter how talented you may (or may not) be. Unlike in a majority of sports, where you have to try out to make the team and only the best earn a spot, arts programs find space for people of all skill levels. Most schools have choirs and bands that accept everyone as well as ones for select, high-achieving students. Any students can take general art classes, and those who are more advanced can do separate work or enroll in a class like AP Art Studio. The same goes for writing endeavors, digital work, and so on through the arts. In this way, everyone gets the support they need for their level and nobody has to feel excluded.
12. Personal Expression = Healthy Minds = Healthy and Happy Students
We all need an outlet where we can vent our frustrations, shout for joy, and just let loose! Through arts programs, students have a place to do just that. In whatever medium you’re most comfortable, you can express yourself in a controlled environment – you decide if it’s public or private, a work your created or just something you’re interpreting. Whatever you’re feeling, it needs to be let out to maintain your mental health. And let’s be real, the arts are a hell of a lot cheaper and a hell of a lot more fun than therapy.
13. What’s Gonna Work? TEAMWORK!!!
One reason the arts are often stuck behind sports is that they don’t “encourage teamwork” the way athletics do. But have you ever seen a musical? Yeah, that cast is a team. Same goes for the crew working on your school newspaper or even the gang of students who hang out together and practice slam poetry. While the arts can be a private, individual experience, they also have plenty of opportunities for teamwork (and if you’re still a skeptic, go hang out in the auditorium during tech week and, as aforementioned, go screw yourself).
14. Time Commitment Upwards of 25 Hours a Day
Again, just pop in during a show’s tech week and you’ll see what I mean. While students have the freedom to engage in arts programs of a lower time commitment, many activities are just as high a time commitment as sports teams. Student athletes get all kinds of respect from their fellow students and the administration for investing in such a heavy time commitment – respect that I agree is well-deserved. However, that same credit is rarely afforded to arts kids. Believe me, some days, there isn’t enough coffee in the world.
15. Teaches Discipline and Responsibility
Discipline, concentration, and responsibility are just about the holy trinity of arts kids. Getting that self-portrait right might take weeks, analyzing each pencil mark for hours before just tossing the sheet, crying a little, and starting over until you get it perfect. Dancers might spend 5 hours a night mastering a grueling pointe routine, only to get bronchitis the night before the show. And guess what? They still go out there, 102 fever be damned, loaded up on antibiotics and still giving the audience the performance of their lives. In the arts, you don’t give up, you don’t let your castmates/teammates down, and you don’t give less than 100%. Their work ethic alone should give arts kids the credit they deserve.
16. It Has Just as Long and Important a History as Sports
No doubt, sports have a long and rich history – they’ve been around as long as we have, from the Olympics to Mayan war games. But guess what? The arts have been around JUST as long. From humanity’s beginning, we have told stories, drawn on caves, celebrated with victory dances and songs. Shouldn’t something that has played this important a role in human development get a little more respect?
17. Without the Arts, We Wouldn’t Have Beyoncé.
‘Nuff said.
