Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Universities must equip students with the 21st-century skills necessary to succeed in increasingly interdisciplinary careers. Incorporating arts-based courses into the general education curriculum exposes all undergraduate students to creative cognition and design thinking. A strategic process such as design thinking could reduce a gap between the undergraduate curriculum and the 21st-century skills students need to succeed based on the job market’s changing needs. This research explores the art education landscape and how the transferability of 21st-century skills mastered in art courses could promote student success for all majors in an increasingly visual culture and globalized world. When universities reject interdisciplinarity, creativity becomes confined and limited. Students of all disciplines can gain strategic design skills from studying art as an interdisciplinary elective, meaning how the arts tie into other disciplines.