As an arts-based children’s museum with bigger than life interactive art installations, we often get the question why art? We love getting this question and sharing our perspective – and were thrilled to see a great post on the Artsblog, with multiple reasons why art is important.
As we prepare for our 5th Annual Mass Creativity Day on Saturday, June 24, an all day celebration of art, culture and diversity, it’s especially timely for us to share some of the great points made in the blog by Merryl Goldberg, along with our thoughts:
- Art leads to civic engagement and lifelong arts participation.This is one of our core beliefs. Being introduced to art at a young age leads to increased engagement with art and a life-long appreciation of art. We often consider our Museum as a “gateway” to arts and culture for children. For many it’s the first “museum” they experience, coming as early 6 months old and frequenting until the tween years.
- Art develops empathy, kindness, and cross cultural understanding. Art transcends language – and we see this daily at our Museum. Children may not speak the same language (or speak at all yet!) but through art and the creative process they can communicate and work together.
- Art gives students a voice in learning and telling their stories. Yes! Our Mass Creativity theme this year was about storytelling through art. In workshops held throughout the County, we asked people to share their story, who they were and what was important to them – through watercolor tiles, painted curtains, music and creative expression.
- Art strengthens students’ ability to collaborate and problem solve. One of the best ways to prepare our children for the future is to help them learn to work together – most career paths will involve teamwork and arriving at solutions together.
- Art encourages risk taking and flexibility.
- Art nurtures hope and resiliency.
- Art develops in-demand employees with high career goals. Art builds creative, innovative students who can think outside the box. Yes! Creativity is at the core of what companies are looking for – regardless of what field. Some of the best engineers and scientists were introduced to art at an early age, which helped hone their ability to think beyond the obvious and innovate.
- Art cultivates tomorrow’s leaders. At the core of our mission is stimulating imagination and creativity through art, helping develop 21st century skills to help create our future leaders.
See art in action at our Mass Creativity Day Saturday June 24 from 10:00am – 3:00pm at the Museum (inside and outside in our park). Admission is FREE. Food, music, performances, art-making and more.
To see the rest of the blog and the ART=OPPORTUNITY campaign check out http://blog.americansforthearts.org/2017/06/07/why-art-we’ll-tell-you-why-and-we-can-prove-it.
