Science gives us the facts, what we need to try to understand, and we only truly understand them through works of art. To hold in your mind a little picture of the universe, trying to comprehend its scale, is a creative act, an act of the imagination, the creation of a potential work of art or maybe one already. If you then commit it to a hard copy, it is a work of art. Many mathematicians will see the elegance in a simple yet powerful equation. Give a student a list of prime numbers to memorize and they (might) remember it long enough to pass their exam. Show the music in pattern, play and listen to the harmony it can produce, and light an understanding and curiousity that will last far longer. The truly greatest minds knew that one discipline informed the other, that in 'scienza' and 'arte' there was knowledge and true understanding. Art in higher education is important, not just a thing to be left behind like a child's playtime (though that has its place - aren't children making sense of their world in their drawings?) any more than maths is expected to be just playing with coloured blocks (though again...). There is no conflict between the two, but they provide the basis together of a full education. and create minds capable of, and hungry for, thought. And in a world where we're told creativity will be ever more important and a required skill, how will anyone know what to do with all the discovered information if creativity is seen as unimportant? Where will the new ideas come from - yes, important for the economy, business and innovation - if minds are taught imagination is a lesser skill, rather than one to be developed like any other? Seriously considered art education and exposure to the arts helps us to understand and to think. They can, through this and in their own right, just as art can, make the world a better place. That's why the arts are important.
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