The great enemy of creativity is fear. When we are fearful we freeze up, like a 9-year-old who won’t draw pictures for fear that everybody will laugh. Creativity has a lot to do with a willingness to take risks.
The power of the arts is constant, but it is not recognized in our daily lives. In fact the “Encounter with Art” is all around us daily, from the moment we wake up and get dressed we are surrounded by everything that has been designed. Yes, our clothes, house, furniture, dishes, all designed by using someone’s creativity. Creativity is all around us, we just do not see it or realize how much creativity has been used to design things we use daily. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It would be difficult to assess the imagination that has been used in all of the things we see daily. We all use our imagination and think of new ways to dress, decorate our homes, wear our hair and makeup but most of all our individual creativity is never asleep we just do not realize how much we use it. Creativity has been defined as being a risk taker. In general, people feel they are not creative and quickly explain that they are not creative. Why is this? In fact, the very mention of the word “art” prompts people to tell how they know nothing about art and they cannot draw a straight line. Well, who can without a ruler? The word art seems to scare people since they feel their art education is lacking. Over generations of time many people have not received art education classes in their general education. It takes a lot of time to become aware of the history of art and learn how art has prevailed in all civilizations as a record of human accomplishments. Art is taught in the California middle schools and high schools, but elementary art classes were eliminated in the early 1970s when a proposition was passed to reduce real estate taxes and this affected the money given to run schools; so art and music classes at the elementary level were no longer offered and why; not enough money! The consequences of people having art education backgrounds is reflected in how cities develop Art and Culture Commissions or have community art plans. It will take a lot of public support to make Santa Clarita become an art city. Take time to visit the museums in Los Angeles. Happy New Year 2008 to everyone!
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