Children thrive when they participate in the arts, yet the arts are in a dismal state in our schools today. Many schools in the U.S. are turning "Back to Basics," eliminating the arts from the curriculum and classrooms. The disappearance of the arts is most notable in low-performing schools, affecting children who have the least access to resources for the arts outside of school. Yet, these are also the children in disadvantaged social circumstances, who need the capacity to imagine new possibilities for their lives, to think outside of the box and come up with innovative solutions to problems. They need to develop vision and the ability to realize their vision in order to transform the world they live in. These are exactly the ways of thinking that are discouraged in a basic skills curriculum, but are central to the artist's creative process.