Artistic literacy is defined in the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning (2014) as the knowledge and understanding required to participate authentically in the arts. While individuals can learn about dance, media, music, theater, and visual arts through reading print texts, artistic literacy requires that they engage in artistic creation processes directly through the use of materials (e.g., charcoal or paint or clay, musical instruments or scores) and in specific spaces (e.g., concert halls, stages, dance rehearsal spaces, arts studios, and computer labs). Researches have recognized that there are significant benefits of arts learning and engagement in schooling (Eisner, 2002; MENC, 1996; Perso, Nutton, Fraser, Silburn, & Tait, 2011). The arts have been shown to create environments and conditions that result in improved academic, social, and behavioral outcomes for students, from early childhood through the early and later years of schooling. However, due to the range of art forms and the diversity and complexity of programs and research that have been implemented, it is difficult to generalize findings concerning the strength of the relationships between the arts and learning and the causal mechanisms underpinning these associations. The flexibility of the forms comprising the arts positions students to embody a range of literate practices to; •
use their minds in verbal and nonverbal ways;
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communicate complex ideas in a variety of forms;
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understand words, sounds, or images;
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imagine new possibilities; and
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persevere to reach goals and make them happen.
Engaging in quality arts education experiences provides students with an outlet for powerful creative expression, communication, aesthetically rich understanding, and connection to the world around them. Being able to critically read, write, and speak about art should not be the sole constituting factors for what counts as literacy in the Arts (Shenfield, 2015). Considerably, more dialogue, discussion, and research are necessary to form a deeper picture of the Arts and creativity more broadly. The cultivation of imagination and creativity and the formation of deeper theory surrounding multimodality and multi-literacies in the Arts are paramount. Elliot Eisner posited valuable lessons or benefits that education can learn from arts and he summarized these into eight as follows: 1.
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Form and content cannot be separated. How something is said or done shapes the content of experience. In education, how something is taught, how curricula are organized, and how schools are designed impact upon what students will learn. These “side effects” may be the real main effects of practice.
Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum
