The Cultural Importance Of The Arts By Susan Langer

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It can be written in the text form of literature and poetry, enacted in the form of music and theatre, and drawn on a canvas through art and sculpture. This concept is illustrated in, “The Cultural Importance of the Arts.” Susan Langer was a notable 20th century American philosopher who mainly focused her work on artistic expression and linguistic analysis. Her purpose for writing this argument is to explain how these different forms of art are all essential to the developmental growth of human culture and how if art ceases to exist, then society will “give itself up to formless emotion (Langer).” Langer also believes that the primary function of art should be to “objectify feeling so we can contemplate and understand it (Langer).” She begins …show more content…

Art and its education are crucial in the development of young children. Therefore, it is of the upmost importance to ensure that our young children are being taught about art and its education in order for them to be successful contributing members of society. June Vail, a professor of dance at Bowdoin College explains, “The arts bring energy and creativity, a kind of learning that can only enhance every other kind of learning. (Vail).” She continues by saying that, “The enterprise of a liberal arts education is integrative, to educate students to be creative and flexible, to harness their energy in a different way (Vail).” Art begins to lay the foundation of success early for young children by developing their motor skills through paining with a paintbrush and drawing with crayons. Furthermore, it also helps promote language development by learning new shapes, colors, and allows them to describe their artistic creation. Lastly, it also helps children improve academically. A report that was done by the Americans for the Arts demonstrates that young people who participated regularly in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, participate in a math or science fair, or win an award for writing an essay as opposed to students who do not participate in the arts (PBS). As a result of this, it is imperative to ensure that adolescent children of today begin

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