Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. In the Dana Consortium study, released in March 2008, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?

For the first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research brings us closer to answering that question.  Learning, Arts, and the Brain advances our understanding of the effects of music, dance, and drama education on other types of learning. Children motivated in the arts develop attention skills and strategies for memory retrieval that also apply to other subject areas.

The research was led by Dr. Michael S. Gazzaniga of the University of California at Santa Barbara. “A life-affirming dimension is opening up in neuroscience,” said Dr. Gazzaniga, “to discover how the performance and appreciation of the arts enlarge cognitive capacities will be a long step forward in learning how better to learn and more enjoyably and productively to live.  The consortium’s new findings and conceptual advances have clarified what now needs to be done.”

Learning, Arts, and the Brain is available free by written request on institutional letterhead. Please make certain your request contains a complete telephone number-including area code-and a full street address. (We cannot ship to P.O. Boxes). Requests should be mailed or faxed to:

Blayne Jeffries
Dana Foundation
505 Fifth Avenue, 6th floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 317-8721

You may also e-mail your request to: bjeffries@dana.org. Please include your institutional and mailing information.

We cannot accept telephone orders at this time.

Download a PDF version of the full report  (2MB)