TAP Logo - Website HeaderTAP Logo - Website HeaderTAP Logo - Website HeaderTAP Logo - Website Header
  • About
    • About + History
    • Staff + Board
    • Reports
    • Contact Us
  • News + Events
    • Blog
    • Event Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • TAPpy Hour
  • Impact
    • Advocacy
    • Economic Impact
    • Support Local Art Campaign
    • State of the Arts
  • Programs + Services
    • Partners
      • Become a Partner
      • Nonprofit Organizations
      • Individual Artists
      • Businesses
      • Universities & Schools
    • Calls for Artists
    • Job Openings
    • Aptitude
    • ArtWORKS
    • Community Supported Art
    • ChalkFest
    • Metro Arts Pass
    • Advertise with us
  • Grants
    • Grants Overview
    • Individual Arts Partnership Grants
    • City Arts Partnership Grants
    • Recipients
    • Other Support
  • Supporters
    • Business Supporters
    • Individual Supporters
0

A specific example of why the arts matter

Published by Dayna Del Val at October 29, 2018
Categories
  • Advocacy
  • Blog
Tags

The arts often get dismissed for not having specific, measurable examples of why they matter. This column couldn’t get any more specific. But it’s just one success story in a sea of successes that simply don’t get communicated about.

My 22-year-old son, Quinn, will graduate in December from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology with degrees in mathematics, industrial engineering and engineering management and a minor in physics. Clearly, these are impressive degrees, particularly in today’s STEM-driven world.

So it’s not surprising that earlier this month, Quinn was offered a position with Boeing in Los Angeles. I’m so proud of his early professional success. But my real pride comes in seeing the fruition of something I instinctively knew but couldn’t have articulated as a young mother: the value of infusing the arts into my child’s life.

Quinn has no memory of a time when he wasn’t in and around the arts. He attended his first musical at 8 months old; at 3, he sat through an entire production I was in of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Minnesota State University Moorhead. We participated in a parent-child art class series at Plains Art Museum when he was 4; he started piano lessons at 6 and art classes at 7.

I enthusiastically encouraged his writing, his music, his drawing and all kinds of creativity and invested in as many opportunities as I could afford. I framed his early drawings so that he understood he was an artist. He took violin lessons from Ben Sung and played for six years with the Fargo Moorhead Area Youth Symphonies. He has been Concert Master of his college orchestra. He revived the dormant college newspaper because he wanted to practice more writing.

Both Quinn and I knew early on he wasn’t going to pursue any degree in the arts. So, what was the point of all of this? The point was to develop a complex, thoughtful human being who is equally at home with music and art as with math and science.

It was so he would be a good communicator, a skill lacking in many of our science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals. I wanted Quinn to embrace empathy, a larger worldview and a sense of history by being in the arts. The point was to instill in him a love for and understanding of the need to support the arts as an artist and a patron. In short, I set out to create a citizen who embraces the arts as part of his everyday life.

I understood that STEM without the “A” of the arts is a missed opportunity to develop individuals who think creatively and critically, pursue curiosity and are comfortable with ambiguity — qualities we need in the 21st century.

Beyond making an interesting human being, what is the specific fruition of this grand experiment? When they called to offer Quinn the job, they noted that he impressively answered the math and engineering questions. It was his writing and music background, however, that excited them and secured their offer.

Right now, I’m feeling pretty good about how this all worked out.

This article is part of a content partnership with the Fargo Forum and originally appeared in print on Monday, October 29, 2018.

Featured photo by the Fargo Forum.

Share

Related posts

January 14, 2021

2020 leaves artists with a lot to say in North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival


Read more
January 14, 2021

Once upon a time an artist was inspired by a fairytale


Read more
January 8, 2021

Fargo Film Festival to kick off virtual fest this spring


Read more

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • 2020 leaves artists with a lot to say in North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival January 14, 2021
  • Once upon a time an artist was inspired by a fairytale January 14, 2021
  • Submit short story, essay or poem to Fargo Library for ‘Northern Narratives’ writing project January 14, 2021

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • ArtWORKS
  • Blog
  • Calls for Artists
  • Downtown
  • Grantees
  • Job Openings
  • TAPpy Hour

Archives

The Arts Partnership Location

 1104 2nd Ave. S, Suite 315
Fargo, ND 58103

 701.237.6133

Aptitude Artist Studios

 3902 13th Ave S
Fargo, ND 58103

 701.237.6133

Recent Posts

  • 0
    2020 leaves artists with a lot to say in North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival
    January 14, 2021
  • 0
    Once upon a time an artist was inspired by a fairytale
    January 14, 2021
  • 0
    Fargo Film Festival to kick off virtual fest this spring
    January 8, 2021
© The Arts Partnership. All Rights Reserved. | Website built by: BNG Design
0