Arts, Humanities enrich our life and community

October is National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM), coordinated by Americans for the Arts to recognize and celebrate the importance of arts and culture in our daily lives. Why might residents of Northern Utah pay attention to arts and humanities during this month and, more generally, throughout the year?

Broadly, the arts encompass creative activity in dance, literature, music, and theatre, whereas the humanities engage in the study of languages, literature, history, and philosophy. In other words, the arts and humanities center upon human expressivity; these areas of study encourage us to convey our ideas and our feelings in a range of media and then to analyze those thoughts and feelings - as well as the thoughts and feelings of others - with an intelligence enhanced by exposure to great thinkers and creators of the past and present. The arts and humanities both connect us to and encourage us to critique our culture, and allow us to be receptive to the cultures of others.

Some have argued that participation in the arts and humanities makes us "more moral" human beings. Others have claimed that when we fail to partake of the arts and humanities, we become a "nation at risk" of losing its cultural legacy. I don't want to pursue either of those lines of argument. Instead, I will suggest that our active engagement in the arts and humanities produces at least two very concrete and very desirable results: 1) we grow intellectually; and 2) our communities grow economically.

Repeatedly, studies show that education in the arts and humanities produces students better able to succeed both in school and in the workplace than students who lack such education. For example, students who take coursework in the arts and humanities score better on standardized tests in reading and math, have higher grade point averages, and are more likely to stay in school longer than students who do not partake in arts and humanities education. Arts education enhances students' cognitive development, confidence, inventiveness, as well as communication and problem-solving skills. Further, according to Americans for the Arts, "arts education may be especially useful for students who are economically disadvantaged and/or in need of remedial education" (see americansforthearts.org).

Equally compelling are data that connect spending in the arts and humanities to communities' economic good health. One of the fastest growing markets in our nation (and in northern Utah) is tourism; 65 percent of U.S. travelers include cultural events on their trips. Though some visitors may travel to Utah to run marathons, ski or hike, while here they spend an evening watching movies at the Egyptian Theater, visit the Shaw Gallery or attend a performance of the Ogden Symphony.

In addition to tourism dollars are those dollars generated by the non-profit arts industry. Again, according to Americans for the Arts, "the non-profit arts industry (museums, theater companies, performing arts centers, orchestras, dance companies, arts councils and others) generates $24.4 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues annually." These three levels of government spend less than $3 billion per year supporting the arts - which means arts spending generates eight dollars in return for every dollar spent: not a bad return!

Thus, the arts and humanities are good for us intellectually and economically. These two lines of evidence, however, don't respond fully enough to the question I raised at the start of this essay: why might residents of Northern Utah attend to and participate in the arts and humanities? My fuller answer is more personal, more heart-felt; I cannot support it with data, tax figures or comparisons of standardized test scores. Instead, I have to appeal to your feelings as well as your minds, have to ask you to return to moments when you have taken joy from a musical performance, a poem, a translation. What happens in those moments when we are rendered breathless by the virtuosity of "Interpreti Veneziana," or carried away by Billy Collins reading "Madmen" or caught up in the intricacies of "Don Quixote" is that we experience what it means to be fully alive, open to other human beings, open to the richness of life itself. I ask you to partake of the arts and humanities because these experiences will knock your socks off-and the feel of grass under freshly-bared feet is something beyond the quotidian, far, far beyond our everyday well-shod lives.

I encourage you to partake of the arts and humanities in the month of October; my personal recommendations include the musical "Urinetown," directed by Jim Christian, opening Oct. 3; "Samarabalouf," a trio from France, playing at Peery's Egyptian Theater on Oct. 4; and "North Star," installation art by Michael McMillen, on display at the Shaw Gallery in the Kimball Visual Arts Center until Nov. 1.

Enjoy.

Miner is Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities at Weber State University. For a calendar of arts and humanities events taking place during October, visit weber.edu/cah/