Abstract:

The paper aims at analysing art as a tool to be incorporated in economics and business programmes.

There are a number of scientific articles devoted to the analysis of studying arts-based learning principles (Grube, 1994, Lunch, 2013Naiman, 2016, Yin, Kumta, Werner, 2016) and publications stressing the relationship between management and art (Lewis and Roth, 1993, Vaill, 1989, Vendelø, 2009).

Lunch, 2013 concludes that the arts are about critical thinking and solving and reframing problems and facts in ways that reveal insights and opportunities. Music, creative writing, drawing, and dance provide skills sought by employers of the third millennium. Lewis and Roth (1993) stressed that American business education results in practitioners with high-level business skills but lacking the broader knowledge and habits of thought that enable them to use these skills in the complex global marketplace. This knowledge should include familiarity with the economic, political, social, and cultural diversity that is part of the human heritage and an understanding of how these factors structure the contexts in which business is done.

The main methods of the research employ critical analysis of literature and open survey results of Latvia’s private higher education institution’s students studying Economics and Management, on their perception to have study courses of arts in the curricula. The answers are compared between the students having studied courses in arts and the ones haven’t done it yet.

It is concluded that students having studied artistic approaches consider them as necessary component in the curricula and consider the advantages it offers.

Keywords:

Business, economics, art, curriculum design.