Art graces our lives with the creativity of some of the most talented people we will meet in person, virtually or only through their offerings. Today’s MAD post is dedicated to the artists…and the generation which may be the last to have that grace offered to them at a young age.
When you were in elementary school, did you leave the primary classroom to go to the art room? Bolts of paper. Bins of scissors and hole punches. Clay in every color. No painted surfaces on the walls…all covered in creativity. Remember it fondly. Your children and grandchildren may never know that room.
Numbers
In terms of a well-rounded education, to leave out the arts is a disservice. Nearly 95% of adults believe the arts are vital to education. Despite those staggering numbers, fewer than 30% of schools maintain payroll and funding for art programs.
Your child spends more time at the locker than in art classes.
Need proof arts really matter? High school students who take four years of arts and music score 100 points higher on the SAT than those who take a semester or less. How much is the coach making again?
Art is good.
When children (and adults) create and appreciate art, they are more tolerant and open to others. They recognize the talent it takes to create beautiful, skilled and thought-provoking art, especially when they discover, hands on, how hard it is. It allows them to appreciate and recognize creative abilities in others.
Any adornment can be art. Jewelry is a artful example.
Art embraces culture and celebrates people and nature. Before man could communicate in words, pictures were the universal language. Cultures are readily identified by their native art. Our history is depicted in millenia old art on every known surface.
Individuality blossoms when art is introduced. Art makes decorative statements in our homes, offices, gathering places and bodies.
Art boosts self-confidence by improving overall academic performance. By tapping into creativity, better problem-solving skills are sharpened. Art can give reference points to history, making it more attractive to students.
Do Something
You can Make A Difference by choosing to create, appreciate or support art. Choose it for yourself, your family, your children, your community…all of you.
Create
Create a piece of art today. Need help with ideas?
- Go to a hobby or craft store. Ask someone to help you.
- Go to the hardware or DIY center. Look for projects.
- Go to the nursery or garden center. Learn about landscaping.
- Go to the computer store or surf. Buy an art program.
- Go to your child or artistic neighbor. Ask for an idea.
- Go to the library or search engine. Read project books
You do not have to be painting or sculpting to be creating art. Inspiration is everywhere. Media is boundless:
You do not have to adhere to tried and true. Use your imagination.
- Paint
- Clay
- Wood
- Paper
- Pixels
- Plants and flowers
- Fabric
- Light
- Pencils, charcoals, pastels, ink
The treatments are only limited by your imagination:
Mosaics can be tile, stone, glass or any other medium.
- Origami
- Pruning
- Air brushing
- Rendering
- Carving
- Ceramics
- Xylography
- Quilting
- Sculpting
- Papier-mâché
Just to name a few. Have no technique? Sign up for an art class. Bring a buddy or take one for a different age group. If you are a senior, take a young adult class, or vice versa.
Make a family project. Everyone can finger paint. A box of crayons and some construction paper can become anything in the hands of a child. Embrace your inner child.
Appreciate
Visit a museum. Make a date for an art gallery with (Quaint, Sibling, Mate). Find the nearest (or nearest your vacation spot) sculpture garden.
Support
Volunteer for a local art activity at your local school, community center, senior citizen program, veterans’ home or library.
Purchase from a local artist.
Donate art supplies.
Visit art websites. Share links with your friends and family.
Write a letter:
- To the school district
- To your local and national legislators
- To an art instructor
Letters of appreciation for support of the arts go a long way to continuing the argument to fund art programs. Letters to legislators let them know the public supports the arts as a fundamental necessity to education.
Make A Difference
Art touches and changes lives. Its history is longer than the written word. It lets us communicate across borders and time. Art helps us remember our past, our heritage and our culture.
Art should not be relegated to only the wealthy who can afford to offer it to their children. It must remain as part of the public domain and an element in education.
Can you MAD about art? Make a difference by creating, appreciating and supporting art in all forms.
~~~~~~~~~~
Have you ever donated a piece of art? Have you ever bid on art in a charity auction? When was the last time you created a piece of art? When was the last time you shared art with a child? Would you write a letter to your legislator to support the arts?
spilledinkguy
/ May 3, 2012Eh.
Not really my scene, Red.
😉
spilledinkguy recently posted..Delmar-Loop Trolley
Red
/ May 4, 2012Smart Aleck. 😛
Bearman
/ May 3, 2012That is why I firmly support Crayons 2 Computers in Cincinnati which gets art supplies to teachers. Great post.
Bearman recently posted..Archie Andrews Arrested for Polygamy
angela
/ May 3, 2012I live above Cincy. I have heard of the program but didn’t know one was that close.
angela recently posted..Help, I’m out of control!
Red
/ May 4, 2012Which is one of the reasons I support you, Bearman. There need to be as many of us spreading the word and doing as much as we can. I have seen the decline over the last few years, and it sickens me.
Deb
/ May 3, 2012I support an elementary school in their art programs often. This one in particular always asks for permission for their children to try and copy my work…Yes, of course, anything to help a child with art. Art is so important as I see it. without it we become closed minded to people in general. Without art we would not be able to come up with brilliant ideas to problem solve. Life itself and all that is in it is a creation out of a creative mind.
You are creative Red, very creative. You are creative in the way you reach us in your posts…the way you keep your viewer very interested and coming back for more…this is all a form of art to me. It’s not just a drawing or a paintings…it’s everything and anything that takes an idea.
When children have the chance to wake up their creativeness while young they will sore….I’m rambling now.
Great post, Red
Have a lovely evening,
Love to you, Hugs, xx
Deb recently posted..Recession
Red
/ May 4, 2012Art is far more than just canvases. There is just a pervasive attitude it is more important to be able to throw a baseball than to create. The push for standardized testing is an abomination and not what the bobbleheads envisioned when they thought it was a brilliant way to see if everyone was doing their jobs. Instead, the sacrifice of true education has happened.
Thank you for helping. I hope more people begin to help.
{HUGZ}
Red.
xxx
Raymond Alexander Kukkee
/ May 3, 2012Red, on this one you are bringing coals to Newcastle, I am totally TOTALLY for art for kids.
Why? Art is a civilizing influence on humanity.
Advanced civilizations from the past can be identified by their achievements in art.
In our family we grew up exposed to the majority of forms of art including the visual arts, drawing, painting, gardening, writing music, writing, and inventive creativity, woodwork, refinishing, construction of everything, –and in total appreciation of all forms of art.
Your most recent piece of poetry is created art. Our blogs are art. Every creative thing we do is art, and the greatest single gift other than love that we can give our children is the gift of creativity and interest in art! GREAT article, Red! ~R
Raymond Alexander Kukkee recently posted..Z is for Zooks and Zounds
Red
/ May 4, 2012I hope this message spreads far and wide. It is one of the keys to our future. Our children deserve the chance to tap into their own creativity to explore and expand their horizons. I had a photographer laugh at me once because I wanted to promote her work on the Internet. She was sure it would not do any good. It did. A teenager started following the posts and eventually sent me some of his pictures. He was inspired by what she had done. There is no greater compliment for the art we create as when it inspires someone else to test their own talent.
M. J. Joachim
/ May 3, 2012I’m glad you wrote this, Red. Expressing creativity is so important. Taking time to look at art is relaxing, a wonderful activity to do any time. Art comes in so many different styles, eras and mediums. It’s good that you reminded us to think about art today. Thank you!
M. J. Joachim recently posted..Popcorn with Picot Stitch Christmas Ornament
Red
/ May 4, 2012You are very welcome. You are quite the artist, yourself. Most do not look at our hobbies and consider them art. Some days, I think it is not art until another spies it, but I know that to be false. It is the argument of the tree falling in the forest.
angela
/ May 3, 2012I have not donated a piece of art per se, but I donate my skills all the time.
As an artist myself, I understand the need for this type of expression and opportunities to explore. How many would be future artists are lost because their creativity was not tapped?
I do art and craft projects with anything I teach ( age group doesn’t matter) and do “tivities” with the gks all the time. I know they love to create art, but don’t get much opportunity in school. How sad is that? My latest thing is playing around in paint to create for my blogs. It is a great sense of accomplishment comes when others enjoy something I created! Kids need that! This is especially true of those who do not excell in other areas.
Our schools have dumbed down so much and, by teaching to the test and losing art and music opportunities along with tech items that keep kids from using their imagination. No wonder we are behind other nations and have grown- ups with course vocabularies and little imagination!
:: stepping on soap box:: Great post!
angela recently posted..Help, I’m out of control!
Red
/ May 4, 2012One of the things I always did with the children I babysat was let them create something (besides just a mess). Parents are always thrilled when their children are excited for them to return because the children have a gift for them. Quells a ton of separation anxiety for both.
Binky
/ May 3, 2012Does building a rocket count as art? Otherwise, I don’t know.
Binky recently posted..Foot Walk
Red
/ May 4, 2012Of course it does, Binky. You are creating something from your imagination and raw materials. Not many can create rockets!
Lizzie Cracked
/ May 3, 2012Art.. the product of human creativity. Without it what are we? I have donated art..given it as a gift and engage in artistic endeavors with my children all the time. Sometimes it is the way to break down the barriers raised by misunderstanding. Almost all of my children and I each have an art project together and when there is a distance that for some reason can not be resolved, that is where it gets done. Universal language. everybody sees it their own way. <3 Lizzie
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..The Thing about Ducks, Mid-Afternoon Mental Moment
Red
/ May 4, 2012I think without it, we fail to be human at all. We become merely animals surviving in our environments without humanity. The silent bonding which occurs when we work on something together can heal so much. <3
valentinelogar
/ May 3, 2012Have artists throughout my family and I envy them. Mine is mostly expressed through the lens of my camera, though I have been sadly remiss lately, leaving the house without either of my good ones, which use to travel with me everywhere.
When I was young my heart was much different being both drawn to dance and charcoal, music pen and ink. Now, now I think I only have words but they come only when I allow them out.
We stifle our young so terribly. Lay ruin on our nation and our society. With the loss of art we lose our soul.
valentinelogar recently posted..Inside Domestic Abuse
Red
/ May 4, 2012I think you should invest in a dictaphone program. You could record some of your words for later…And you need to be picking up that camera again. Figures. I am telling you this when you are NOT traveling. But glad to see the peaches!
Soma Mukherjee
/ May 4, 2012Oh I loved this post Red,I used to be in my co carricular activities class most of the timmes when i was in school so i understand what it means to do something or pamper ones gifts
and since my kid is in a school which is open to parents coming and helping kids out i take part in art promotions often..like organising small paiting or craft mela for those kids who have talent and those who just want to showcase their work…
Soma Mukherjee recently posted..The Third eye of Mata Soma
Red
/ May 4, 2012That is terrific, Soma. The more children into whose hands we entrust the faith they will create, the more they will bond and interact with one another. I would love for more people to learn about art and choose to share it with others.