When is the last time your child talked to you about the great artistic masters who lived before our time? Do you remember them talking about how exciting it is that the creations of Michelangelo, DaVinci, Velasquez, Goya, Renoir, Degas are still in existence and can be seen in art books, museums, and galleries? It is most likely that few, if any, parents have had a discussion like this with their children.
Why is this? There are many reasons we do not make art a priority in the education of our children. But there are also a great many number of compelling reasons why we should make an essential component of our children’s lives.
Art lifts us out of the ordinary view of life and reminds us that life is about far more than survival. Art is most basically the very essence of creation…colors, forms, relationships between species and their environments. Art portrays our deepest emotions. Sadness, anger, joy, exhilaration, despondency, contentment, struggle…all are represented in so many myriad ways artistically. Whole worlds abound in works of art that are available to see and experience. History is written in each figure; the clothes of a period, the faces, the scenes recorded from times where the art is the only visual record of what went before. What a rich and splendid gift that has been passed down to us!
Some ideas of how to bring art alive to your children: Take them to a museum, buy an art book and share the masters with them. Take them to see an art show, walk into galleries in your travels. Ask them what they like and what they don’t like. Have them talk about what specifically appeals to them; how does it make them feel. Have them take some art classes. Buy prints (in museum bookstores) of some of their favorite pieces and hang them in their bedrooms. How lovely to think of their eyes closing at night after looking at an inspiring piece of art hung opposite their beds. Make art an important and integral part of their lives, and they will be vastly enriched.
For a free introductory art class (ages four years to adults) or for more information about KidsArt classes, visit our website at www.KidsartClasses.com or call 661-260-1774.