When advocates for the arts talk about the benefits of education in this particular field, they often frame their discussion with respect to its instrumental benefits rather than intrinsic. People believe it will be easier to convince others if they show them how an arts education benefits an individual’s life in ways other than in the arts. A broad example of this would be the argument that studying music helps an individual to understand mathematical and physical constructs.
The RAND Organization put together a report last year that underlines some of the fallacies in this line of reasoning and pushes for a reframing of the benefits of an arts education. The bottom line is that arts should be studies for arts’ sake. Here is more information on the report and you can also download the report [pdf].