Blog: Access/Benefits
In my last blog post, I talked about my own experiences of access to the arts, mentioning some research around arts and education. This time I wanted to take a longer look at that research and talk about why access to the arts is so important, particularly for children from working-class backgrounds.
~ Dance for All ~
is our mission here at Shaper/Caper and we try our hardest to provide high-quality dance experiences to anyone regardless of age, ability, or socioeconomic status in all of our touring productions and creative learning work. Exposing primary school children to creativity and performance, particularly in areas of deprivation, could provide the spark for them to become passionately involved in the arts; but this isn't just because we love dance and want everyone to have the chance to experience it, promise!
While increasing access is a benefit in its own right, providing arts opportunities has a positive knock-on effect in other aspects of life. As I mentioned in my last blog, The Cultural Learning Alliance’s (CLA) 4th briefing paper, The Arts in Education, notes that learning through the arts can improve attainment in Maths and English citing a 17% increase in cognitive abilities. Children from low-income families were 3 times more likely to get a degree when engaging in the arts in an education setting and taking part in arts activities at home in their early years saw children ahead in reading and maths by age 9.
This is something we have seen first-hand through some of the projects we deliver in school. Our creative learning project in Aberdeen worked with primary school children using dance to aid their literacy skills. You can read more about this on Sarah's blog post here. Using performance is also an engaging way to convey facts and explore more hard-hitting subjects and information, like in our smoking prevention workshop, Well Good.
~ Shaping Reality through Creative Adventures ~
Creativity offers people a unique opportunity to engage with life that is meaningful and regenerative. The narratives within theatre productions provide a safe space for children to access and explore complex, unfamiliar emotions, discover the imagination and the ability to construct therefore affect change in the world. This beneficial opportunity to come to terms with the world around them through story and performance should be available to all children and are a direct outcome of the performance experiences we deliver. This isn't limited to the world around them either. We can learn more about ourselves through creativity too, and might even find some strength and confidence we didn't know we had.
We have heard LOADS of teachers saying how they can't believe that wee [child's name] was sooo keen to get up and perform in our Well Good workshops so we can definitely attest to this!
Dance, theatre, drama and group music-making are known to improve young people's self-esteem, social skills and emotional wellbeing, as noted in the CLA's 3rd briefing paper The Arts, Health and Wellbeing. They also cited research by the Scottish Government, showing that people who participated in a creative or cultural activity were 38% more likely to report good health compared to those who didn't. This jumped to 62% for people taking part in dance!
Like many other artists, we believe the transformative power of the arts can be a remarkable catalyst for change, inspiring people to stand out, be heard, and take action to create positive change in their community. As well the physical, mental and emotional benefits of the arts, there's evidence to support this social aspect too. Children regularly participating in arts activities show an improvement in cooperation, social cohesion and pro-social attitudes. They are also more likely to vote and volunteer.
I think I can safely speak for all of team Shaper/Caper when I say that yes, we LOVE dance and we LOVE the arts.
But as individuals and as a society we all NEED the arts.
