CHANCELL-ING: Investing in the arts to imagine a brighter future
If you’ve spent any time at UC Davis, you know the Egghead sculptures that dot our campus. Whether they’re gazing at the stars or giving students luck before important exams, the Eggheads are an indelible part of campus life.
As I mentioned in April, we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of those iconic Robert Arneson Egghead sculptures all year. And we’re excited to announce the documentary “Unexpected Legends: Arneson, Eggheads and Arts at UC Davis,” premiering at 7 p.m. on Nov. 13 on KVIE and available online after. It will explore the history, legacy, and future of these sculptures and the arts at UC Davis.
At leading research universities like UC Davis, investing in the arts ensures that our diverse student populations develop the skills needed to thrive in the innovation economy and engage in the nuanced, complex thinking we’ll need to imagine a brighter, more collaborative future together.
Californians understand the value of art education. In 2022, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 28, which has provided $1 billion to public K-12 schools to support arts after decades of underfunding.
At UC Davis, we’re building on that investment. We're launching the Maria Manetti Shrem Arts Renaissance thanks to a philanthropic partnership with the international arts patron. Manetti Shrem is giving $20+ million for holistic, multi-disciplinary arts programs and endowments to make the power of the humanities available to all.
We’re also prioritizing the arts across our classrooms and labs, where students blend art and science in projects like wearable technologies that will serve patients with chronic illnesses and explore new fabrics to make fashion sustainable.
This investment pays off for students. A 2023 report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences found that California students who graduate with a degree in the arts earn $32,000 more per year than those with only a high school diploma and $18,000 more than those with Associate degrees in all fields.
Students with an arts background are well-positioned to become critical players in California’s $225 billion creative economy, which employs 849,000 people directly and 639,000 indirectly across the state in positions ranging from creative directors to architects.
As our late dear friend and patron Jan Shrem reminded us, “The arts should be accessible to all people and that a curious, open mind should be nurtured.” Exposure to the arts — whether in coursework or visiting a campus museum — empowers all students to develop novel thinking, consider unconventional approaches, and step away from linear thinking to breakthroughs.
It's little wonder that Steve Jobs once said the best engineers working on the first Macintosh computer were poets and musicians or that Nobel laureates in science are 50% more likely to be artists than the average scientist. Blending the power of creative and technical minds powers innovative thinking.
Universities must prepare students for the innovation economy, which demands more than a deep understanding of technical skills. In a workplace that’s evolving more rapidly than ever, building true pathways for social mobility demands empowering students with the capacity for divergent thought and developing the capacity to imagine at every step from prototype to market.
In our increasingly polarized times, exposure to the arts plays another vital role. The nuanced thinking and empathy from the study of art may be our most valuable asset against the binary thinking that frames so many of our debates in black-and-white terms of wins and losses. Ensuring that students from all backgrounds have access to the arts will open their eyes to the complexities of the world and the experiences of others who have lived lives different from their own.
The arts remind us how much we owe one another. One of my favorite artists, the painter Ernie Barnes, once said he painted faces with closed eyes to demonstrate our tendency towards “blindness towards humanity” and our inability to see “the gifts, the strength and potential within other human beings.”
Art alone cannot bridge these gaps, but anyone who has heard a Beyoncé concert bring 60,000 people together in one voice or witnessed Charles Henry Alston’s “Walking” compelling viewers to reflect on the extraordinary courage of ordinary Americans during the Civil Rights movement understands the transformative power of art on our collective and individual souls.
UC Davis is tackling the world’s most intractable challenges, from the existential threat of climate change to the urgent need to build an inclusive society that maximizes everyone’s potential. Transforming these profound challenges into opportunities demands that we nurture our students’ whole creative and analytical minds not only to imagine but realize that future.
Investing in the arts is a critical investment in imagining that better tomorrow. For our students at UC Davis, we’re committed to building that future today.
I encourage you to take the opportunity to view the documentary about the legacy of the arts at UC Davis this month and extend a welcome to celebrate the ongoing arts on display on campus. Whether you visit our museums, which are free and open to the public, attend a concert or take in a theatrical production, you’ll see the transformative power of the arts on our students and the world.
I hope to see you at one soon!