Does Art = Creativity?

A response to the article by Moga et al, Does Studying the Arts Engender Creative Thinking? Evidence for Near but Not Far Transfer. Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 34, No 3/4, Special Issue: The Arts and Academic Achievement: What the Evidence Shows (Autumn-Winter, 2000), University of Illinois Press, pp.91-104.

Do the arts naturally and solely foster creativity? Moga et al, through psychologist David Perkins, explore this question through an introductory quote:

"The arts are excellent vehicles for fostering thinking because they provide a sensory anchor (one can focus on a physical object as one thinks), they are instantly accessible (one can check one's argument at any point by looking back at the work), they engage us and sustain our attention, and they encourage rich connections" (91).

Conversely, the authors seem to challenge Perkins and ask, "What evidence do we have that learning in the arts leads to creative thinking skills?" (ibid). The rest of the article describes a set of hypotheses and research experiments that prove inconclusive to 'proving; this correlation. But after reading the article, I wonder how a subject matter can be innately more creative than another? If this was to be proven true, that the arts does indeed foster a greater sense of creativity than other subjects, wouldn't it be a terrible disadvantage to those students who cannot fit the arts into their timetable? Would the arts then turn into a core subject...that is if the world values creativity. Rather, can't this not be a matter of nature versus nurture. Does a subject seep with creativity or is it infused by a creative teacher? 

It is no secret that I am a fan of the power of teachers. I believe that there are good teachers and bad teachers and that teachers have the power to change lives. Whether this is cliche or not I believe it. I wouldn't be a teacher if I didn't. And beacause I believe in the power of teachers, I work hard to be a damn good one. To me, a good teacher is a creative teacher. And though teaching through the arts comes natural to me, I try to share my creative angle in all subjects. I realize that not all students are like me and gravitate to the arts over maths or sciences. If I am passionate about teaching, I need to be passionate about teaching all subjects to engage all students. This means teaching creatively not just through art. It is the teacher that is creative, not the subject.