Today is Arts Advocacy Day 2018!

March is Youth Art Month!

The Ten Lessons the Arts Teach

Today is National Art Advocacy Day!

Please join me in being an advocate for the arts in education! 

 Ask your child why he or she thinks the arts are an important part of the school day.  Watch the video below for some insight on why we need art in school. 

"Practicing art... is a way to make your soul grow"

How can you tell if your task is truly CREATIVE?

Above all, I value creativity in my art room.  I am strongly opposed to art projects and crafts that give step-by-step instructions that lead all students to similar results.  While I steer clear of these "cookie-cutter" projects, this article challenges me to make sure my art lessons are truly promote authentic creative thought as much as possible.  

click here to read this article about promoting creativity in the classroom.

Here are five questions that I can ask myself to ensure that my lesson is truly creative:

1. Does is call for an original response?

2. Is it difficult, but rewarding?

3. Does it require collaboration?

4. Is student work diverse?

5. Do you need to put students' name on the work to identify the art maker?

“I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. Creative work in any field often passes through typical phases. Sometimes what you end up with is not what you had in mind when you started. It’s a dynamic process that often involves making new connections, crossing disciplines and using metaphors and analogies.” Sir Ken Robinson

Why Arts Education is Crucial

I feel incredibly lucky to work at two schools that value our arts programs and support them as we build our schedules and budgets.  However, in education as a whole right now, there is a push to focus on the Common Core-- literacy and math.  Of course these areas are immensely important, but it is equally important to recognize the role that the arts may play in helping children to achieve in all areas, including these Common Core subjects and areas of social and emotional growth.  This article shows that there is a strong connection between art education and academic success and that the arts are essential to the development of our students.  

From the article

Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing It Best

on Edutopia.com

"Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence," sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has said. Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems. Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.

Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork."

Click here to read the rest of this article.  

Welcome back!

10 Lessons that Art Teaches

Written by Elliot Eisner, an ardent arts advocate, I originally found this from  the April 2011 issue of Arts & Activities magazine.    It's a short, succinct argument for the importance of art in education. Here it is:


1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solutionand that questions can have more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving
purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.

Burlington's South End Art Hop

I saw some amazing art and great music at last weekend's South End Art Hop in Burlington.  This annual event showcases all types of artists' work.  The South End of the City of Burlington came alive with different types of art and open studios around every corner.  I was thrilled to see so many people exploring and appreciating the arts.  

I would definitely recommend this cool event to anyone who needs a serious jolt of creativity in your life!