Why bother with arts education in schools?

Abstract Enrolments in school arts subjects are falling in both England and Australia. There are various arguments made in an attempt to reverse the situation. The arts are said to be vital for the economy, linked to success in core school subjects, are educationally inclusive and important for their disciplinary knowledges. In this paper, based on my Radford lecture, I canvass these arguments, concluding that arts education, like the arts themselves, are complex and refuse simple reductions. I speculate about what this might mean for the arts and broader education research community.