Welcome to Artsplorers! I am so pleased to have you here.
I’m Cristin, and I’ll be playing hostess. I’m a dramaturg turned full time mother to one cool pre-schooler. (Dramaturg?? Did you ever wonder who looks after all the scripts that get sent to a theatre to consider? Or, who digs up research for a production? No? Well, that was me.)
I started this page with the assumption that kids and the arts are a perfect fit, and if you’re here, maybe you think so, too. But, the fact is that we parents have a an immense amount on our plates, and our kids don’t actually need the arts. They need secure homes and schools and maybe for a vegetable to cross their lips now and again. Between time, financial, and emotional commitments, we parents can feel pretty spent. I don’t see “the arts” anywhere on that ol’ Hierarchy of Needs triangle that Maslow bloke constructed.
So, why bother with the arts? If technology is the future, shouldn’t we focus Maths and Science? Plus, sports take up a lot of time on the weekends. Music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and literature maybe seem a little “extra” – nice enough, if we can fit it in, but no kid’s life is going to turn out for the worse without, right?
Truthfully, our kids probably can go on to successful lives without the arts (and, for the record, we are in full favor of sports and STEM in this household), but if we do make the effort to carve out space for regular interaction with the arts in our families’ lives, here are a few things that our kids can look forward to:
Empathy – I know I’m not alone in feeling that our world is disturbingly polarized – so many people have become determined to see the world through only one lens, and cast people outside their view as suspect or dangerous. It’s not healthy for any of us. One thing that is proven to broaden our worldview and perception of others is the arts. By their very nature, the arts ask us to see the world through the eyes of someone else. A painting may show us a person from a foreign time and place, but with a facial expression that is oddly familiar. A novel can take us into the deepest emotions of a person living an entirely different life from our own. Even non-narrative works, such as a piece of music, ask us to enter another culture and another way of expressing feelings from our own. The growth of empathy is an unavoidable impact of experiencing the arts, and one I think the world can use more of.
Seeing things from a new perspective – Not only does seeing the world through another’s eyes build empathy, but it also grows our understanding of perspective. Take this sculpture from New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. It delights me so much.
It’s a lovely, smooth stone, very pleasant on the eye. Then you read the placard and learn that it’s called “Fish.” Suddenly, you can never see anything but a fish when you look at it. Shifting perspective. What else in life might we suddenly see completely differently? Or, when we sit in the theatre and watch an argument that we’d never thought of played out in front of us. We may have been strident in our beliefs on the topic, but a well-written play shows us nuances of thinking that we, ourselves, could not have conjured from our experience. Having our values challenged may be uncomfortable, but how often do we open ourselves up to considering our views from a new angle – or asking our children to do so?
Asking Questions – The arts don’t tend to make anything easy. They are the domain of metaphor and representation. We cannot engage with the arts without asking many questions. Learning how to ask good questions is one of the highest level skills that anyone can acquire in the course of an education.
Making connections with other disciplines – The miraculous thing about the arts is that they contain the whole, entire world. And so, we need all the other disciplines to engage with them, and in return, engaging with the arts helps us make new connections with other subjects. Want to be a painter? You must understand how light works. Dance is a study in cultures. The connection between music and math is well established. To understand a play, you have to delve into the historical context. And, it’s hard to love literature without picking up an exceptional vocabulary and sense of grammar. The connections go on and on – to study the arts is to study everything.
Getting in touch with emotions – In Western society, we are not the greatest with accepting any emotions other than happiness. We’re all striving for happiness, and we want happiness for our kids. The shows my kid watches are bursting with happiness – problems solved in 11 minutes, piggies literally falling down from laughter. In the arts, you will find happiness, but you will also find the whole gamut of other emotions. Melancholy, sadness, despair, confusion, rage, hope. All the feels. As parents, we often turn to books when we need to explain a complicated emotion to our children, but what if we exposed them to a whole host of emotions (in an age appropriate manner) on a regular basis, rather than only as needed? Perhaps those feelings we prefer not to give much voice to wouldn’t seem as solitary, daunting or forbidden when they happen to our children, as they inevitably happen to all of us.
Embracing their own creative side – Every parent knows that little ones are oozing creativity. Finger painting with tomato sauce, making music with spoons, leaping around the living room like clumsy Barynshnikovs, creating Miller-esque household dramas with Ken doll and Blue Bear. Kids take to the arts like Matisse to a pair of scissors. Exposing children to the arts just reinforces that innate drive as something natural and worth celebrating, and offers newfound inspiration for their future masterpieces.
Seeing themselves reflected back – Many kids feel different for so many reasons – being from a different race or cultural background from your peers, having an illness or a learning disability, being gay or transgender, economic status, or even just being shy or having unusual interests. Truthfully, most of us felt different at some point in our childhood. The arts can show us that there are others like us, even when we don’t see them around.I’m reminded of an interview I did with Puerto Rican American playwright Jose Rivera, who told me about discovering the author Gabriel Garcia Marquz. “I grew up in a Puerto Rican household in an Italian neighborhood. They never seemed to connect. It was so different being home than being in the outside world. …school was always about Ibsen, Chekhov, and Tolstoy – Europe. Reading Marquez was the first time that anything from the world of school and education came to me that reminded me of my home…. I felt like, wow, someone celebrates this culture. Someone gets it.” If we expose our children to images and stories that reflect them, the arts become their mirror, and a means to feeling understood. In fact, I think we ought not tell children which pieces will reflect them, but simply expose them to many works and aesthetics. They’ll know it when they see it, far better than we can ever guess for them.
Sharing their stories – …and in return, our children can find a unique way of telling their story – be it through a story, an interpretive dance, a song, or a sculpture.
Become better students – Participation in the arts makes better students. It’s a proven fact. “Longitunidal data of 25,000 students demonstrates that involvement in the arts is linked to higher academic performance, increased standardized test scores, more community service, and lower dropout rates.” (Americans for the Arts – see linked study). So there ya go. Who doesn’t want a piece of that?
Helps with future jobs – Creativity is the name of the game in the workforce of the future. In another published paper by Americans for the Arts, they report that “72% of employers say that creativity is of primary concern when they’re hiring, yet 85% of these employers can’t find the creative applicants that they seek.” They go on to report that 56% of employers consider an advanced degree in the arts to be “the most significant indicator of creativity in a prospective job candidate.” This is not to say that a child who participates in the arts needs to go onto a university degree in the field, but if they do, they’ll be viewed favorably by prospective employers. And, no matter what professional path they eventually pursue, a lifetime of creative engagement is certain to serve them well.
So, while it’s true that neither our kids nor we adults need the arts, we can find a lot of our humanity by making them part our everyday experience. In these Artsplorers pages, I want to share the joy and insights that come with exposing kids to the arts, as well as some tactics to do so. I hope you, too, will drop in with your comments, observations, and suggestions.
And, off we go. Adventure ahead!
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“…to study the arts is to study everything.” I love it! So true. As a teacher, I can tell you from experience that allowing kids to find a creative path in the direction of the lesson goals is the fastest, easiest, and most fun (for everyone involved) way to ensure real learning is taking place. Also, I feel like the arts are a safe place for kids to be engaged without pressure. Being creative is great stress-relief (even adults have coloring books these days). This blog is great! Can’t wait to read the rest!
I agree with you Jen. As a teacher myself, I see students who are never ever going to achieve in the academic world and they’d rather stick a pen in their eye than play sports but put them in front of a microphone or give them a paintbrush and they are in their element. Every child needs to have something they can succeed in and which gives them a sense of belonging. I also love taking my children along to watch productions big and small. We recently saw Shadowland which we all enjoyed that immensely.
Thanks, Jens! Love to see teachers recognizing the importance of the arts – I certainly remember creative projects far more than any other lessons.
Thank you for sharing these points about art. I see where you are coming from – the arts may not be considered essential to survive, but if you want your children to be able to thrive and enjoy the world around them (a step up from merely getting by) then the arts are a pathway to that.
My children are both storytellers. My son through words and my daughter through pictures. My kids would rather poke themselves in the eye with a rusty fork than play sport and while they are both doing well academically, neither is particularly drawn to science or maths, so I can only encourage them in their creative pursuits. Can’t wait to read more of your posts.
It will be so interesting to see where their creative minds take them!
The world would be a pretty boring place without the arts.
It so would. Reminds me of that little meme that says, “Earth without “art” is “eh””.
Not imperative to life but so important and can have so many benefits. As a children’s author obviously I love books but as a speech and language therapy graduate I know the massive knock on effect. Life without books to me would just be awful. Same with music!
Love having your perspective here, Gilly!
Wonderful stuff! This is not a question I’ve ever asked myself, because for me it’s a no-brainer. People may not need the area physically, but emotionally, spiritually, existentially they are as essential as food and water and shelter. They feed, water and shelter our souls.
I completely agree (no surprise!). I, personally, don’t think life would be very rich at all without the arts.
I really enjoyed this post. I admit that I am one of those parents that would’ve pushed the arts to the side (i am not particularly creative). It was really interesting learning about what the arts help our kids with.
I think it’s important to find the ways “in” to the arts that work for you and your family. Personally, I’m not much of a crafts at home person, but I love going to a show or museum and reading books together. Hope this page will give you some more ideas!