COLOR MY WORLD CHILDREN’S ART STUDIO features

Kathryn Benton is a member of the Arts and Education Exchange; an Art Alliance initiative, in partnership with the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois State Board of Education.

The Arts Inspire
The arts in our life can move us, inspire us, and touch us like no other discipline can. Why?
Five reasons why the arts inspire…
1. The arts inspire Calm-Why does the room fall quiet when you get out the paints for the first time? Making art is relaxing and is proven to lower blood pressure. With the level of stress in our society today, couldn’t everyone use a brand new paint palette?
2. The arts inspire the Cognitive- When you listen to a song, or hear a beautiful opera, why does it move you to tears? The arts touch a part of us tucked deep inside, the ability to tap into these emotional intelligence’s is unique.
3. The arts inspire Connections- It’s just interesting! When teaching tessellations* in art class, the students were also learning about it in math. A 5th grader commented, “In math, I didn’t get it, but in here, it’s awesome and I get it and I love it!” Art has the ability to provide that hook and interest for just about anything!  It makes learning fun.
(*A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces.  Tessellations are seen throughout art history, from ancient architecture to modern art. In Latin, tessella is a small cubical piece of clay stone or glass used to make mosaics. The word “tessella” means “small square” (from “tessera”, square, which in its turn is from the Greek word for “four”). It corresponds with the everyday term tiling which refers to applications of tessellations, often made of glazed clay.)
4. The arts inspire Communication- The arts give students a new way to communicate, share things about themselves and discover themselves. We all communicate in different ways, yet, 90% of our student’s days are spent communicating in two ways: Through writing or verbally. What about all of the other forms of communication? Artwork. Singing. Movement?
5. The arts inspire Culture- Art shapes culture. What kind of culture will our students look back on if they don’t have the art experiences and exposures we did?

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