The Importance of Being Ernest (in your art)

I and the teachers I work with are required to give a speech upon various topics at our school's upcoming conference. My subject is: The Importance of Art in the Montessori Classroom; the speech will also include my teaching plan for the art classroom this upcoming year.

So far I have stumbled upon some really awesome websites that have good ideas for building creative thinking skills in the students through various projects and teaching methods. And lots of 'this is how art is beneficial and these are the skills that it provides'. I have found lots of 'this is what works in my classroom' and am now trying to find some more scientific reasons for why it works.

Also trying to find some 'ice breaker' type exercises to use at the beginning of the lecture to demonstrate the use of art as a communicative and critical thinking process. This part has proven hardest.

This subject has gotten me thinking about what art is and what makes its value.
More on 'What Art Means to Me' later....