What Are Some Ways People Can Benefit by Looking at Art

Recently I was asked to speak about the importance of fine art education. I had my talking points, but believed the all-time people to ask most 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. Information technology was exciting to reconnect and dive deeper into why fine art education is such an important bailiwick.

We all know the arts are fun for kids, but the arts too aid with fundamental development.

Let'due south take a look 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 about inventiveness considering they allow kids to limited themselves. Math and science are of import, of class, but the visual arts push kids' creativity and divergent thinking skills to the side by side level. If children practice thinking creatively, it will come up naturally to them now and in their future careers.

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

"My high school art education constructed invaluable foundations for me as a creative professional. Simply the very idea that I could take my innate bulldoze every bit a maker to work creatively in any field of my choice has had a tremendous touch on my life. Having someone foster and promote my creative growth and power to solve complicated design problems, remember critically, and work collaboratively on creative projects has shaped my journey as a sculptor, as an art outreach educator, as a marketing professional, and well-nigh recently equally a Primary of Architecture student."

2. Improved Bookish Performance

The arts don't just develop a kid's creativity. The skills they acquire 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 probable to be recognized for academic achievement." I call up most of us know this, too.

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

"I'm a second-yr graduate student pursuing my Chief of Public Health in Global Epidemiology degree at Emory University. I'thousand interested in the causes, trends, and methods for the control and prevention of wellness outcomes, particularly in global health and the social determinants of health. Studying the visual arts provided invaluable skills and a strong foundation for the education I'one thousand pursuing today.

Equally an art student engaged in several art projects during a semester, I adult skills in research, project design and implementation, and fourth dimension direction. The creativity and innovation I sought for my art projects came from using my inquiry and critical thinking skills to incorporate multiple influences into my art projects. These skills utilise to academic or professional experiences and disciplines across the visual arts.

Nevertheless, my favorite part of existence an art student was learning about a multifariousness of artworks and the fourth dimension periods, historical events, and social bug that could have influenced the artist and the message they wished to convey through their art. Every bit a public health educatee, I remain very interested in studying how history and societal issues shape wellness outcomes. Like the artists I've studied, I'm always aspiring for a improve style to communicate and showcase the results of a project I'm working on so it will enlighten someone, make someone call back differently well-nigh a topic, or bring attention to an effect I care securely about."

3. Fine-Tuning Fine Motor Skills

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

Here'due south what my educatee, Alicia Burgum, Course of 2013 had to say:

"Today, I am a teacher and a freelance artist. I go along to do about ten orders a year along with my full-fourth dimension chore as an educator. My high school art classes take prepared me for my work today by giving me a broad range of skills and techniques that I nevertheless use. In my high schoolhouse classes, I also developed my overall art way which I believe has not deviated much from what I produce today. As a teacher, art is a swell manner to make some extra coin on the side. I'm grateful to have the training working with various mediums and designs in high schoolhouse, that have provided me with a strong foundation to make me the artist I am now."

4. Confidence

While mastering a discipline certainly builds a student's confidence, there is something special virtually participating in the arts. Using materials that turn into visual stories is magical, and it helps students feel more confident. As they better and see their own progress, their cocky-confidence continues to grow.

Hither's what my student, Elizabeth Hamilton, Class of 2014 had to say:

"The start fourth dimension I felt a truly fulfilling sense of accomplishment was during all of my art classes at North Gwinnett Loftier School nether the guidance of Ms. Kim and Ms. West. Early on, I didn't sympathize the upshot art would take on my time to come. Creating was more like a game to me then. I took it seriously, just nothing compared to what I view it equally today. Not until my inferior year of high school did I fully understand the potential my future had in fine art. The art classes and after school activities taught me patience and determination to finish any task brought to me.

To this 24-hour interval, I e'er wait back at my early art career and recall 'look how far I've come.' My conviction connected to grow, and since then I've finished my degree in Visual Communication at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and I am now waiting for my internship with Adult Swim's Artistic Group to start in the summer. Art is my life, and I'll never regret the choices I fabricated early while in art grade."

5. Visual Learning

Drawing, painting, and sculpting in art class assist to develop visual-spatial skills. As fine art educators, we know children need to know more most the world than simply what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to translate, criticize, and apply visual data, and how to brand choices based on that information.

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

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

vi. Decision Making

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

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

"Art classes give many students a first take chances to explore their creative potential and estimate how information technology could relate to future careers and college learning opportunities upon graduating. The possibilities are endless equally long equally y'all focus on your gifts! With social media and the Cyberspace, you truly have the power to reach the world with a bespeak of view only you lot tin bring! As a printmaker and prepress technician, my high schoolhouse art classes laid the foundation for the creative person that I am."

7. Perseverance

Equally we are all aware, the arts tin be challenging. I have always said, it's chosen artwork for a reason! Successful artists don't quit. They learn that hard piece of work and perseverance pay off. This mindset matters as they abound. As artists choose their career paths, they will be asked to continually develop new skills and piece of work through difficult projects.

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

"I graduated from Yale in 2015 and currently work as a Product Researcher at Google. My team and I produce qualitative data that informs strategic changes to Google's advertising products. I'm so glad that I took art in school because information technology instilled in me a addiction of inventiveness and pushed me never to quit. I exercise the aforementioned brain muscles that I employ to draw when I try to problem-solve a difficult work issue or when I'm thinking of ways to present dumbo information in an easy-to-understand way.

Knowing the principles of pattern and practicing artistic inventiveness tin can assist y'all distill large ideas into curtailed forms and organize scattershot thoughts into a compelling narrative. Additionally, taking art throughout high school allowed me to succeed academically in all my other classes by forcing me to use all aspects of my mind. This success in high school paved the way for subsequent success in higher and beyond."

eight. Concentration Skills

Every bit artists persevere through a painting or a cartoon, focus and concentration are imperative. We know concentration skills are also vital for studying and learning in class also every bit completing professional person tasks later in life.

Here'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!) two-D animator, working and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Loftier school fine art classes were vital to me because, although I wanted to be an artist, I didn't know what that path might look like, or even where I should start. My parents were discouraging; though it came from a identify 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 expect like for me. Nowadays, I work in kids' television often animating the characters I grew upwards with for clients like Disney, Amazon, and Boomerang."

ix. Collaboration

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

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

"I of the nigh influential skills I learned from my loftier school art days that I still use today is perspective. I piece of work at a credit union as a mortgage loan originator. While this career is pretty far from a career in the arts, I have establish that a lot of skills that drive my success as a loan originator were derived from my experiences and lessons learned in my loftier school art classes.

For instance, in art class, we were taught that a unmarried piece of fine art could be interpreted or viewed differently depending on where y'all stand, what kind of mood you are in when viewing it, etc. In my role when I am presented with a request, I accept significantly improve options for them when I have a step back and look at the request from several different angles. This also gets the creative juices flowing and allows me to come up with multiple options that my clients tin can choose from. I believe that this sets me above similar individuals in my field who lack the perspective or 'drive' to think outside the box and provide more than one fashion to cantankerous the cease line."

10. Accountability

Just like collaboration, kids in the arts learn they are accountable for their contributions to the group and to their private artmaking. Mistakes are a part of life, and learning to have them, prepare them, and motion on will serve students well as they abound older.

Here'southward what my educatee, Lexi Woods, Course of 2009 had to say:

"I currently live in Brooklyn, NY and work in Soho equally an Industrial Designer for a retail company. We do pop-up stores, store displays, and promo accessories for brands around the world. I'm creative, but also highly ambitious. I 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 residue of my life way too early on. 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 globe to me that I never knew existed, and led me on a path of inventiveness and worldly-preparedness. I take artistic influences and insights on past designers and artists that have helped shape my personal way to the designer I am today."

These are a few "real-earth" ways the arts impact our students' lives.

The arts affair, perchance now more than than ever. I think my educatee, Brandon Park, Class of 2015 said it all-time 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 still become freelance job offers. Right now I plan on interning once again during the jump of 2019.

How have high school fine art classes helped me? Foundation, foundation, foundation. I cannot stress enough how important foundation is for whatever striving art and design student. Yous would exist surprised how many students misunderstand the importance behind knowing the basics as they breeze by it thinking that they're going to be fine in the long run, when in the terminate they tend to forget the most simple techniques. My feel during my art journey in high school was the first footstep to becoming a professional creative person and designer. Knowing the 'basics-of-the-basics' can exponentially assist with every projection that you get-go with and holding tight to the foundations of art is a reminder to consider the importance of the foundations for life!"

Why exercise you think art class is important?

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

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional person education contributors and do non necessarily represent the position of the Fine art of Education Academy (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors employ terms in the way they are most often talked well-nigh 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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