Educational and Formative Value of Studying the Visual and Performing Arts

This qualitative study, conducted at Boston College, investigates the formative impact of undergraduate education in the visual and performing arts—specifically art, art history, dance, film, music, and theater—through the lens of Jesuit pedagogy. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), alumni were interviewed and asked to reflect on their academic, social, and spiritual development in relation to the university’s Jesuit mission. By focusing on alumni voices, the research examines who our alumni have become as a result of their visual and performing arts education. Participants’ responses dovetailed repeatedly with the university’s set of characteristics or principles considered to be formative, affirming that their education in an artistic field was central to the mission of holistic formation. The study contributes to ongoing discourse on how artistic practice animates Jesuit values and supports the formation of intellectually competent, morally grounded, and spiritually aware graduates.