The making of art contributes to a knowledge of the world that is unique. Through art it is possible to see new aspects in our environment and to renew our concepts.
Art provides a way to view the world and to understand the mind.
Perhaps no other experience provides the kind of insights that arise through the making of art. Art study should involve more than the development of skills and training in techniques. Its justification lies, above all, in the way it deals with the major questions or ideas raised about life, about society and culture, and about the meaning and purpose of art itself. Art can help relate those ideas to the student's thinking in other disciplines and lead toward an integrated view of life. For these reasons, Northwestern plans its art courses so they synthesize the technical aspects of making art with the intellectual discipline of analyzing and criticizing art.