“The arts aren’t just a career, or a fun night out, they’re a mode of thinking which can help us find new solutions to problems, and equip us for an unknown future. Creativity and the capacity to innovate are really at the core of any healthy society and economy, and indeed could arguably be said to be one of the core elements of the human condition. The problem is, their effects aren’t always immediately obvious, and we have a Government in power which is obsessed with short-term goals. If something doesn’t have an immediate application or make an immediate profit then it gets cut. It’s terribly short-sighted.

“Nurturing creativity in the young is like installing the software on which all the other information they are absorbing will run. It is about independent thinking, making new connections, finding new solutions…you can add in that it nurtures articulacy, self confidence, stage presence, empathy, emotional intelligence and an understanding of conflict, cause and effect and audience psychology as well. Will studying [the arts] get a child a job as an [artist]? Probably not. Will it give them the skills to shine in any job interview which comes their way? Almost certainly.”

— award-winning UK playwright Fin Kennedy
http://bit.ly/finkennedy