Can learning to play the piano enhance your mathematical skills? Can exposure to great works of art enhance creativity and learning in engineering? People have often wondered about links between artistic training and education on the one hand, and ostensibly non-artistic cognitive abilities on the other hand. Early evidence suggests that education in the arts may facilitate creative thinking and effective problem solving across a broad range of intellectual domains. Neuroimaging studies reveal differences in the brains of artists vs. non-artists, which are stronger in those who started arts training early. Illuminating links between the arts and other intellectual domains, and the effects of artistic training on the brain, would both broaden and deepen our basic understanding of human learning.
With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Christopher Tyler is organizing a workshop on art and creativity as they relate to the Science of Learning. A diverse group of scientists, educators, and historians will come together to discuss the effects of artistic training as a function of a variety of factors, including timing over the lifespan, artistic medium and modality, and emotional sequelae. A primary aim of these discussions is to explore new approaches to the enhancement of academic learning. The workshop will bring together distinguished researchers from a diverse array of interrelated fields, including visual art, music, dance, auditory pattern recognition, developmental psychology, neuroscience, education, and philosophy.
