What is the Value of Art?

I was out last weekend with a couple of friends and one artist friend asked how art ranked in importance in our lives as a percentage.

“100 percent”, I quickly responded.

We often think of writing or drawing or acting as the arts, but art is creativity and everything in life benefits from this quality whether it’s the paintings on our walls, or creative solutions where innovation is desperately needed like in health care or public education.

In my opinion, an early focus on the arts ensures that everyone finds a creative passion to at least carry forward as a hobby into their adult life. 

Although my day job is technical,  there have been plenty of opportunities to utilize my artist training and having kept art alive in my life from drawing to writing and playing harmonica, I feel that has helped with work tasks over the years that required a creative mindset to overcome complex hurdles.

I also belive you shouldn’t be able to fail art – especially ceramics – if you’ve shown a passion or a reasonable effort. 

We don’t want kids to shy away from creative studies, worried that it will bring their grades down or give them any sense of of not being good at an art form. If they enjoy it, they should know that they can at least secure a B even if they exhibit little talent for the medium. 

Keeping our kids entertained and their creative juices flowing, is what we should be keeping in mind when balancing our marking system with the greater benefit of being engaged in their studies and in life.

I truly believe that there is something in education for everyone but to achieve this, we must see everyone in education. 

A failing grade in art doesn’t see the individual.

One response to “What is the Value of Art?”

  1. […] touched on this in my post ‘What Is The Value Of Art?’. Ceramics and hairstyling were all my daughter talked about. Emma aced hairstyling. She should […]

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