The arts are undeniably emotionally evocative. This chapter focuses on our complex emotional entanglement with the arts and describes the range of emotional experiences that people have with the arts, as well as how those experiences can foster learning, curiosity, and growth. It argues that because of their ability to express and evoke emotionally complex experiences, the arts are a fertile ground for the development of a critical set of cognitive skills associated with emotional intelligence: perceiving, interpreting, regulating, and acting on emotions experienced by oneself and others. Empirical evidence is marshaled to show that the arts present us with novel opportunities to observe and examine how emotions are expressed in varied, nuanced, or even exaggerated ways, which offers insight into the emotional experience of others. Additionally, the chapter shows that feeling and actively reflecting on a host of emotions evoked during art making and art appreciation can help us to recognize and appropriately label our emotions, which is key to healthy self-regulation.