Although visual art is considered a subject deemed by the federal government as part of the core curriculum, many elementary schools do not include this subject into the current core curriculum of studies. This review of literature provides insight through current qualitative and quantitative studies on the effectiveness of including visual art into the core curriculum and it's impact on reading at the elementary level. Research compiled to reveal the importance of including visual art into the core curriculum and the results of brain-based research on teaching visual art to children. The review also ties together the effects of a core curriculum which includes visual art and its effect on emergent readers, reading comprehension, and reading test scores. The review concludes with implications for further studies and final thoughts about visual art integration into the core curriculum.