The findings are critical for retaining creative people in the state and generating additional funding for arts programs, said Rex LaMore, the director of the center.

“I hope it will help us reconsider how we treat the arts — not as an add-on or frill but as an essential component,” he said. “If we want creative, inventive people, it appears that this exposure and participation in the arts is a critical component.”

LaMore said arts participation starting at a young age also is crucial to innovation later in life.

“I think where our focus on this is ‘what can communities do to support more inventive, creative people?’” he said. “One of the things we found was the importance of sustained arts participation throughout your life.”

LaMore also encourages the implementation of arts programs in businesses.

“One of the opportunities for mature adults is experience with arts in the workplace,” he said.

The study wasn’t without challenges, LaMore said. Specifically, researchers had difficulty determining normative rates of exposure to the arts. LaMore also said the comparable data often didn’t have the same categories.

In the future, the center will survey different groups of people to compare the study’s results, said nursing senior Megan VanDyke, who worked on aspects of the study.

“We are continuing with other populations — we’re looking at … engineers from several colleges (as well as) national academy members,” she said.

The center plans to talk to members of Michigan Technological University, Oakland University and MSU, and LaMore said the process of contacting members of those groups has already started.

Human biology junior Amber Peruski worked on the study and said the center now is working to alert parents about the findings.

“We’re making parents aware of the importance of art … and the importance of getting involved as a child and continuing it,” she said.