a recent survey by the National Endowment of the Arts<\/a>. In 2025, most U.S. adults surveyed did not participate in any clubs or organizations (67%), did not volunteer for organizations or associations (58%) or did not attend religious services (51%), according to the NEA. But people who engaged in the arts as either spectators or creators were more likely to engage with their communities.<\/p>\nThe NEA report summarized surveys of adults. Children, particularly teenagers, can be petulant and dismissive of group projects, according to Ottomano. The fact that the \u201cFresh Perspectives\u201d project resulted in a public art exhibition at a prominent Philadelphia museum overcame a lot of hesitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiddle schoolers don\u2019t want to be excited about things. It\u2019s just what they are. That\u2019s middle school. But they really are,\u201d Ottomano said.\u00a0 \u201cHaving that \u2014 people are going to drive to see your artwork \u2014 as a motivator was really cool. Not something that we usually have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Desiree Disney, the principal of the participating school Our Mother of Consolation, said the project allowed students to see themselves as members of a larger society.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project has also helped us expand on our personal reflections of the journey we endured this first year in our new school building,\u201d Disney said in a statement. \u201cThis is the kind of experience that becomes a lasting school memory, helping students see themselves as artists and as part of something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition \u201cNew Perspectives\u201d at PAFA has been extended to Monday, July 27. It has attracted the attention of City Hall. The city\u2019s office of arts and culture, Creative PHL, is planning to host a portion of the exhibition in City Hall\u2019s display cases this fall.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This story is part of a series that explores the impact of creativity on student learning and success. WHYY and this series are supported by the Marrazzo Family Foundation, a foundation focused on fostering creativity in Philadelphia youth, which is led by Ellie and Jeffrey Marrazzo. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When art becomes civic engagement People who participate in art projects are four times more likely to be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":955879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,31006,41480,1448,203491,2830,1311,30814,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-955878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-civic-engagement","tag-creativity-sparks-success","tag-pa","tag-pafa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-250","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116974234274429767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}