This thesis contains a description of a project carried out in Finnish schools based on Canadian Learning Through The Arts pedagogy. During the project artist-teacher pairs taught different school subjects to school classes, for example mathematics through dancing, biology through fine arts or a combination different art forms together in ‘project method’ -style learning. When evaluating the project, the emphasis was not found in the individual differences of certain artists or teachers in action, but more than that; in the cultural and structural differences between Canada and Finland. The dissertation reflects the discussion on the justification of arts and the role of arts education in schools. On its theoretical level, the dissertation integrates curriculum theory, educational history, and philosophy, underlining the importance of arts education as part of theeducation of man. In the section on curriculum theory, the romantic and the classical curricula are compared in terms of their differing methods, contents, objectives and evaluation. There is a well-known dichotomy between the so-called ‘hard and soft’ subjects e.g. mathematics and humanities subjects, which has its roots in history and epistemology. Yet, four different approaches to solve the problems of education are suggested: formism, organicism, mechanism and contextualism in accordance with Pepper’s world hypotheses theory. Referring to Kant, this dissertation claims the arts tobe rational and propositional in their nature and thus them to be not only the medium of communication but one of the ontologies of reality among the other two: knowledge and ethics. In line with this view, art education should always be cultural education by nature. Based on the findings of this work, it is claimed that multidisciplinary co-operation can enrich work in the schools. However, it is still necessary to ensure that the artists will have appropriate knowledge of pedagogy before using arts in the schools with teachers.