In What Ways Will You Look at Art Differently After Taking This Class?

Recently I was asked to speak about the importance of art education. I had my talking points, but believed the best people to inquire about fine art education would exist my former students. I reached out and asked them what they learned in art class and how it continues to impact their lives. It was exciting to reconnect and dive deeper into why fine art education is such an important discipline.

We all know the arts are fun for kids, just the arts likewise help with fundamental development.

Let'south take a wait at 10 ways the arts help kids learn and develop valuable characteristics they will need every bit adults.

1. Creativity

We know the arts are all nearly inventiveness because they permit kids to limited themselves. Math and science are important, of class, just the visual arts push kids' creativity and divergent thinking skills to the next level. If children practice thinking creatively, information technology volition come up naturally to them now and in their future careers.

Here is what my student, Mori Haynes, Grade of 2010 had to say:

"My high schoolhouse art education constructed invaluable foundations for me as a creative professional. Only the very thought that I could accept my innate drive every bit a maker to work creatively in any field of my choice has had a tremendous touch on on my life. Having someone foster and promote my artistic growth and ability to solve complicated design bug, retrieve critically, and piece of work collaboratively on artistic projects has shaped my journey as a sculptor, as an fine art outreach educator, as a marketing professional, and almost recently every bit a Master of Architecture student."

2. Improved Academic Functioning

The arts don't but develop a child's inventiveness. The skills they learn often spill over into their academic achievement. A report by the Americans for the Arts states, "A student involved in the arts is four times more than likely to be recognized for academic achievement." I think most of us know this, likewise.

Here is what my student, Ha Troung, Class of 2012 and Gates Scholarship Awardee had to say:

"I'yard a 2nd-year graduate student pursuing my Master of Public Health in Global Epidemiology degree at Emory Academy. I'm interested in the causes, trends, and methods for the control and prevention of health outcomes, particularly in global wellness and the social determinants of wellness. Studying the visual arts provided invaluable skills and a strong foundation for the teaching I'm pursuing today.

As an art student engaged in several art projects during a semester, I adult skills in inquiry, project design and implementation, and time management. The creativity and innovation I sought for my fine art projects came from using my research and critical thinking skills to incorporate multiple influences into my art projects. These skills apply to academic or professional experiences and disciplines beyond the visual arts.

However, my favorite part of being an fine art educatee was learning about a variety of artworks and the time periods, historical events, and social issues that could have influenced the artist and the bulletin they wished to convey through their art. As a public health educatee, I remain very interested in studying how history and societal bug shape health outcomes. Like the artists I've studied, I'm always aspiring for a better manner to communicate and showcase the results of a project I'm working on so it will enlighten someone, brand someone recollect differently about a topic, or bring attention to an result I care securely about."

three. Fine-Tuning Fine Motor Skills

For younger kiddos, simple things like property a paintbrush, making marks with pens, pencils or crayons, and cutting with pair of scissors are important for the evolution of fine motor skills. Developmental milestones around age three should include cartoon a circle and beginning to apply prophylactic scissors. Around age four, children may be able to depict a square and begin cut straight lines with pair of scissors. This continues throughout the years where students begin to merge their technical skills with their creative skills.

Here's what my student, Alicia Burgum, Class of 2013 had to say:

"Today, I am a teacher and a freelance creative person. I continue to do about 10 orders a yr forth with my full-time job as an educator. My high school fine art classes have prepared me for my piece of work today past giving me a broad range of skills and techniques that I even so apply. In my high school classes, I likewise developed my overall art style which I believe has not deviated much from what I produce today. As a teacher, fine art is a swell way to make some extra money on the side. I'thou grateful to accept the grooming working with various mediums and designs in loftier school, that have provided me with a strong foundation to make me the artist I am now."

4. Conviction

While mastering a subject certainly builds a educatee's confidence, in that location is something special about participating in the arts. Using materials that turn into visual stories is magical, and information technology helps students feel more confident. As they better and see their own progress, their self-confidence continues to abound.

Here'due south what my student, Elizabeth Hamilton, Class of 2014 had to say:

"The first time I felt a truly fulfilling sense of accomplishment was during all of my fine art classes at North Gwinnett High Schoolhouse nether the guidance of Ms. Kim and Ms. Westward. Early on, I didn't understand the effect fine art would have on my time to come. Creating was more similar a game to me then. I took it seriously, simply cypher compared to what I view it as today. Not until my inferior twelvemonth of high school did I fully empathize the potential my future had in art. The art classes and after schoolhouse activities taught me patience and determination to finish whatsoever chore brought to me.

To this day, I e'er look back at my early art career and think 'look how far I've come up.' My confidence continued to grow, and since and then I've finished my caste in Visual Communication at the School of the Fine art Institute of Chicago, and I am now waiting for my internship with Adult Swim's Creative Group to commencement in the summer. Art is my life, and I'll never regret the choices I made early on while in art class."

5. Visual Learning

Drawing, painting, and sculpting in art form assistance to develop visual-spatial skills. As art educators, nosotros know children need to know more well-nigh the earth than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to translate, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on that information.

Hither's what my student, Mary Truong, Class of 2016 had to say:

"I am currently a junior at Northwestern majoring in visual arts and estimator science. I like edifice computational art installations that permit viewers to participate in the artwork. I retrieve these works create a more than transformative fine art experience than passively looking at paintings, and I hope groups interacting with my art accept a connection through shared participation. The art I did in loftier school gave me a technical, artistic foundation that prepared me to build these circuitous works."

six. Decision Making

Nosotros know the arts strengthen problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Learning how to make choices and decisions will certainly carry over into our students' education and other parts of life.

Hither is what, Jabari Parker, Class of 2008 had to say:

"Fine art classes give many students a first chance to explore their creative potential and gauge how it could relate to future careers and college learning opportunities upon graduating. The possibilities are endless as long every bit you focus on your gifts! With social media and the Internet, y'all truly take the ability to reach the earth with a point of view but yous can bring! Every bit a printmaker and prepress technician, my loftier school fine art classes laid the foundation for the creative person that I am."

7. Perseverance

As nosotros are all enlightened, the arts can be challenging. I have ever said, it'southward chosen fine artwork for a reason! Successful artists don't quit. They learn that hard work and perseverance pay off. This mindset matters as they grow. As artists cull their career paths, they will exist asked to continually develop new skills and work through hard projects.

Here's what, Doo Lee, Form of 2011 and student body president had to say:

"I graduated from Yale in 2015 and currently work as a Production Researcher at Google. My squad and I produce qualitative information that informs strategic changes to Google'south advert products. I'm so glad that I took art in school because it instilled in me a addiction of creativity and pushed me never to quit. I practise the same brain muscles that I use to draw when I try to problem-solve a difficult work outcome or when I'm thinking of ways to present dense information in an piece of cake-to-understand mode.

Knowing the principles of design and practicing artistic creativity can assist you dribble large ideas into concise forms and organize scattershot thoughts into a compelling narrative. Additionally, taking art throughout high schoolhouse allowed me to succeed academically in all my other classes by forcing me to utilize all aspects of my mind. This success in high schoolhouse paved the way for subsequent success in college and beyond."

8. Concentration Skills

As artists persevere through a painting or a drawing, focus and concentration are imperative. We know concentration skills are too vital for studying and learning in form likewise every bit completing professional tasks later in life.

Hither's what Allison Eddy, Class of 2011 had to say:

"I graduated from NGHS in 2011, went on to SCAD to major in animation and now I am an (Expat!) 2-D animator, working and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. High school art classes were vital to me because, although I wanted to be an creative person, I didn't know what that path might await similar, or even where I should start. My parents were discouraging; though it came from a place of love because no other family members were successful artists, we had no roadmap. High school art classes gave me the foundation and the language to start to figure out what being an artist might look like for me. Nowadays, I work in kids' television often animating the characters I grew upwards with for clients like Disney, Amazon, and Boomerang."

9. Collaboration

Many of the visual art projects I've had my students practise require them to piece of work together. They must share responsibility and compromise to achieve their common goal. I remember the arts teach kids their contribution to the group is integral to its success.

Here'south what my student, Brandon Whitman, Course of 2010 had to say:

"One of the most influential skills I learned from my loftier school fine art days that I still utilise today is perspective. I work at a credit union as a mortgage loan originator. While this career is pretty far from a career in the arts, I accept found that a lot of skills that drive my success equally a loan originator were derived from my experiences and lessons learned in my high school art classes.

For instance, in art class, nosotros were taught that a single piece of art could be interpreted or viewed differently depending on where you stand up, what kind of mood yous are in when viewing it, etc. In my role when I am presented with a request, I have significantly amend options for them when I take a step back and look at the request from several different angles. This likewise gets the artistic juices flowing and allows me to come up with multiple options that my clients can choose from. I believe that this sets me higher up like individuals in my field who lack the perspective or 'bulldoze' to think exterior the box and provide more than one way to cross the terminate line."

10. Accountability

Just similar collaboration, kids in the arts learn they are accountable for their contributions to the grouping and to their individual artmaking. Mistakes are a part of life, and learning to accept them, set up them, and move on will serve students well as they abound older.

Here's what my student, Lexi Wood, Class of 2009 had to say:

"I currently live in Brooklyn, NY and work in Soho as an Industrial Designer for a retail company. We do popular-upward stores, store displays, and promo accessories for brands around the earth. I'm creative, but too highly ambitious. I tin can actually accredit this independence to my high schoolhouse art classes. When I was in high school, I was confused and felt pressured to pick what I needed to practise the rest of my life way too early. Then I started taking art classes, and I had an outlet for my frustrations that I eventually figured out was my passion. It opened a whole new world to me that I never knew existed, and led me on a path of inventiveness and worldly-preparedness. I have creative influences and insights on by designers and artists that have helped shape my personal style to the designer I am today."

These are a few "real-world" means the arts impact our students' lives.

The arts matter, maybe now more than ever. I think my student, Brandon Park, Form of 2015 said it best when he talked about the importance of a strong foundation:

"I am a senior at Parsons School for Design in New York. I have interned at companies and agencies like Viacom (Times Square), MTV (Times Foursquare), and 26FIVE (Flatiron). Even now, I nonetheless get freelance job offers. Correct now I programme on interning again during the spring of 2019.

How take high schoolhouse art classes helped me? Foundation, foundation, foundation. I cannot stress enough how important foundation is for whatsoever striving art and design student. Y'all would be surprised how many students misunderstand the importance behind knowing the basics every bit they breeze by it thinking that they're going to be fine in the long run, when in the end they tend to forget the nigh elementary techniques. My feel during my art journey in loftier schoolhouse was the kickoff step to condign a professional person artist and designer. Knowing the 'basics-of-the-basics' tin exponentially assistance with every projection that you outset with and holding tight to the foundations of fine art is a reminder to consider the importance of the foundations for life!"

Why do you call back art class is important?

How are your past students using art in their lives today?

Magazine manufactures and podcasts are opinions of professional person education contributors and do non necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its bookish offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are well-nigh oftentimes talked almost in the scope of their educational experiences.

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Source: https://theartofeducation.edu/2019/03/14/10-real-world-ways-art-class-can-impact-your-life/

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