At the 2025 College of Fine Arts Convocation, Dean Andy Schulz took the stage for one final keynote address before stepping down from his dual role as Vice President for the Arts and Dean of the College.
In a speech that was both a reflection and a charge, Schulz asked the graduating class to consider a deceptively simple but deeply consequential question: Why do the arts matter?
Drawing on his background as an art historian, Schulz opened with images and stories—including one about the elusive street artist Banksy—that framed the urgency of defending and advancing the role of the arts in society today. From economic impact and educational outcomes to health and wellness, his remarks highlighted the wide-ranging value of the arts, especially in times of political, cultural, and institutional uncertainty.
We are pleased to share the full text of Dean Schulz’s keynote below—a thoughtful and personal message to the Class of 2025, and a powerful call to action for all who believe in the transformative potential of the arts.
Class of 2025, as we often do in the Arts, I’ll introduce my topic with a story, and as an art historian, I’ll do so with images.
Banksy—the world’s most famous street artist
The creator of the works you see here is known by the moniker “Banksy” and is often considered the world’s most famous street artist. Banksy—who has managed to remain anonymous over the past 30 years and may be a collective of artists rather than one person—specializes in stenciled graffiti images that offer provocative and incisive social and political commentary and critique. Banksy’s works have appeared in a range of public contexts across the globe and have been endlessly recirculated as prints, t-shirts, and in social media.
Banksy’s Store—Gross Domestic Product
In 2019, Banksy made the surprising decision to open a pop-up storefront shop in South London. Called “Gross Domestic Product,” it featured items such as a Banksy-branded aerosol paint can, a brick handbag, and a vest worn in concert by the British rapper Stormzy. To make a purchase, buyers were directed to a companion website, where they discovered Banksy’s idea of commerce was not so simple as “first come, first served.” Although items were priced for a little as 10 pounds, prospective buyers had to provide an answer to the following question,” “Why does art matter?” Responses were then judged by the English comedian Adam Bloom for a chance to be entered in a lottery to purchase one of the coveted works in Banksy’s store.
There is a lot to unpack in this venture. It’s part publicity stunt, part critique of art and commerce, and part effort to make Banksy’s works accessible to a broader audience. But what is of interest to me is the deceptively simple, four-word question that prospective buyers were asked to consider:
Why does art matter?
“Why does art matter?” How we answer this question has much bigger consequences than whether one gets to buy a piece of artwork from Banksy’s online store. Indeed, it has occupied the human imagination for millennia, going back at least as far as Plato in the Western tradition. It’s a question that has animated the better part of my professional life, and it has a very particular urgency in the present moment characterized by threats to public funding for the arts and to foundational public institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and to the very notion of artistic freedom, and freedom of expression more generally.
And so, in considering how to use the precious few minutes granted to me as I conclude my tenure as Vice President and Dean of Fine Arts, I’d like to share some thoughts on why I think the arts matter, and then close with a call to action for you as our graduating students.
The Arts Matter in Economic Terms
In terms of arguments that resonate with broad segments of the U.S. population and with those in positions of power and authority to make public policy, a good place to start is with the fact that the arts matter in economic terms. The most recent statistics—released in April 2025—show that in 2023 arts and culture contributed approximately $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy, which amounts to more than 4% of total Gross Domestic Product. The same report indicates that in 2023 there were about 5 and a half million people employed in arts and culture. Significantly, both employment and share of GDP rose from the previous year, making arts and culture a growth industry, and that growth was not confined to the coasts and to major cities, but rather occurred in all regions of the country. And, most strikingly, between 2022 and 2023 the arts and culture sector grew at twice the rate of the broader economy. These numbers are drawn from reports issued by the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Activity. They don’t account for the millions of individuals who use skills honed through arts training to innovate and add value in non-arts sectors of the global economy, as many of you may do over the course of your lives. No matter how much we may believe in artistry over commerce, we need to have the economic argument at the ready.
The Arts Play an Essential Role in Education
K through 12 education is another domain in which the arts have an essential impact. As you may know, over the past several years, the proverbial “three R’s” of “reading, writing, and arithmetic” have been superseded by the “four C’s.” Described as essential learning and innovation skills for the 21st century, the four C’s are “collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking.” In 2022, the National Arts Education Association issued a position statement underscoring the view that “participation in visual arts, media arts, and design education provides opportunities for all learners in building their skills and capacities for the 4C’s as part of a complete 21st-century education and shaping their human potential.” And, more broadly, research shows a strong causal effect between arts learning and educational outcomes. Consider, for example, a 2022 randomized control trial conducted by Texas A&M researchers in 42 elementary and middle schools in Houston, which found that students who had increased arts education experiences saw improvements in writing achievement, emotional and cognitive empathy, school engagement and higher education aspirations. Those arts engaged students also had a lower incidence of disciplinary infractions. Such empirical examples need to be part of our “Why the Arts Matter” toolkit.
The Arts Impact Health and Wellness
Moving on to another domain, the World Health Organization defines “health” as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” As a 2023 article in the leading medical journal The Lancet notes, “There is a growing body of evidence indicating the arts have a role to play in promoting good health and in preventing and managing illness.” That same article goes on to single out interventions that address health inequities, mental illness, loneliness, and isolation as examples where the arts can—and are—having a significant impact on health and wellness. The benefits of the arts for human flourishing occur at all life stages, from early childhood to older adults. And these benefits accrue not only individuals but also communities through an increased sense of belonging and social cohesion. One example of an innovative program that leverages the power of the arts to improve health and wellness is “Creative Forces – NEA Military Healing Arts Network.” “Creative Forces” is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. It “seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers.” As described on the NEA website, “Creative Forces” “places creative arts therapies at the core of patient-centered care at clinical sites throughout the country… and increases access to community arts activities to promote health, well-being and quality of life for military service members, veterans, and their families and caregivers.”
The Arts Create a More Just World
Next, I want to briefly turn to the particularly important role the arts have in creating a more just and inclusive world. Although we often think of making art as a form of expression, it is equally a form of communication. When we make art, we do so for other people, and in this way, the arts bring us together and are fundamentally communal in nature. This becomes more powerful when artists “focus on utilizing their art form for positive impact on communities, large and small.” This notion of targeting community impact animated a powerful but short-lived program launched in 2016 by the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., and known as the citizen artist fellowship. Rooted in John F. Kennedy’s ideals of “service, justice, freedom, courage, and gratitude,” the citizen artist fellowship brought together a cohort of like-minded individuals whose work was rooted in leveraging the arts to influence positive change in people’s lives. One particularly inspiring example of a citizen artist is Vijay Gupta, who has been described by The New Yorker as “one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music.” In 2011, Gupta founded Street Symphony, which he described as “a community of Los Angeles-based musicians creating performances, workshops, and new songs with our neighbors recovering from addiction, homelessness and incarceration.” Gupta’s belief is that there is then a pathway from arts engagement to civic engagement, and his work has demonstrated this to be true.
The Arts Are a Way of Knowing
And this now brings me to my final and, I believe, most powerful response to the question, “Why do the arts matter?” Simply stated, the arts are essential for expressing, understanding, and celebrating the human experience. This value proposition has many dimensions and a long history. For the past 50,000 years, storytelling, image making, and sound have provided us with ways to engage in the distinctly human act of making meaning. Often this sense making is deeply tied to ritual, as is the case with the role of music in this graduation ceremony. Equally important is the fact that the embodied nature of creating and experiencing art, in any form, offers ways of knowing that cannot be expressed except in and through the work itself. “If I could say it,” the dancer Isadora Duncan once impatiently quipped, “I wouldn’t have to dance it, would I?” The avant-garde composer and musician Brian Eno describes the role of the artist as “imagining possible futures,” while for the theologian and poet Thomas Merton the value of art lay in the paradox that “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” And, moving beyond ourselves to our encounters with others, the arts instill empathy and build community and belonging in a deeply fractured world. In other cases, artists reveal for us uncomfortable truths and make what the civil rights icon John Lewis called “good trouble.” Finally, the arts offer unique ways of examining—and perhaps addressing—complex and often intractable issues that are social, cultural, political, and environmental in nature.
Call to Action
And now for my call to action: Class of 2025, as graduates of the College of Fine Arts I implore each of you to embrace your critical role as advocates for the arts. As you work to hone your craft and launch your career, roll up your sleeves and consider how you will have a broader impact as citizen artists. And as you do so, use your talents, experiences, passion, and energy to formulate your own response to question, “Why do the arts matter?” Raise your voice and collaborate with others as you advocate for the critical role the arts must play, now more than ever, in all aspects of our lives. We are counting on you!
Thank you, Godspeed, and Bear Down!!