“As Andy Warhol once said, ‘Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art,’ ” writes Charles Matthew in Friday’s (8/2) Dallas Morning News. Matthews is a former vice president and general counsel for Exxon Mobil Corp. and a board member for Texas Cultural Trust. “It’s good business to hire creative thinkers. During my career in corporate law, I had the opportunity to interview and hire a significant number of attorneys. Creative thinking skills were always highly valued. As I became better acquainted with an attorney who possessed these skills, I often found that there was some connection to the arts in that person’s background…. And, according to the Texas Cultural Trust’s 2019 State of the Arts Report, access to arts education improves students’ overall academic performance. This leads to an 11.5% increase in college enrollment immediately following high school graduation, creating a better prepared workforce.… Creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and collaboration [are] precisely what we need to build a stronger workforce, a report from the Partnership for 21st Century Learning found.… The Texas leaders of today must protect arts education to ensure the successful leaders of tomorrow.”
Posted August 8, 2019
