Abstract

This paper is written in the hope of exciting debate in a contested arena and also to provide additional support for arts education advocates. I outline a case for suggesting that everyone, that is, all human beings, has an innate capacity and desire for making and appreciating “art” and that denial of this capacity can lead not only to an unfulfilled life but an unhealthy one. However, because of art’s conceptual slipperiness and the fact that it is so dependent upon culture, such an assertion needs qualifying by taking a very broad definition of what is meant by “art” and the making and appreciating of it.One lunchtime recently, I happened to look out the window at a tree moving in the wind; I could tell...