by: Noelle Backer

This issue is a special one. Arts education, which is the subject of this month’s “Special Report” (p. 22), is a perplexing and somewhat frustrating issue. With all the evidence pointing to the benefits of exposing children to the arts, why don’t more schools provide arts education? Why is art often the first thing cut from schools’ curriculum when faced with budget constraints?

Of course, there are school administrators who refuse to cut arts education, no matter what. As you’ll read in the article, about half of students in eighth grade are consistently exposed to the arts. When children with high levels of exposure to the arts are shown to outperform those with no exposure on virtually every measure*, and when improving the education of our nation’s youth is such a high priority, why is this figure not higher?

Fortunately, many of the country’s art and craft institutions are reaching out to children and parents to ensure that their communities are not without ongoing exposure to the arts. Some of these institutions are focusing new efforts on making the arts part of the daily lives of the community members, rather than something they only occasionally encounter.

I will never forget this quote from an instructor of a clay program that reaches children of all ages: “You go into a kindergarten or first grade class and you ask, ‘Who’s an artist?’ and every kid raises their hand; then when you ask a fourth grade class, a few drop off, and then by high school, only two kids raise their hands. You have to wonder what happens between those ages.”

That quote seems to summarize the way the arts are thought of by many people — it defines the common prejudice about art. What happens along the way to deteriorate a child’s confidence in their ability to create?

Apparently, this question is not new to today’s society. Nearly a century ago, Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

The problem seems to be rooted in the very definition of the word “artist.” According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Deluxe Edition, an artist is “one, such as a painter or sculptor, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts.” The problem with the definition is that it depends entirely on the subjective … “of aesthetic value” in whose opinion? We’ve probably all seen works hanging in museums that cause more than a little perplexity at the tastes of the curators and how they came to work for a prestigious museum. But as long as someone sees aesthetic value in a piece of work, then it’s art … right?

For me, watching children two and three years old concentrating on a drawing they are creating, so carefully selecting the next color of crayon to add, and then proudly showing it to anyone who will look at it is amazing. The child certainly sees the aesthetic value of her creation.

No, not everyone can be a famous artist, or make a living selling his work. But the power of a creation goes far beyond viewing it … just think of the pride the three-year-old has at finishing her masterpiece. In my version of an ideal world, all children would be able to experience that throughout all their childhood years … and, equally important, all adults would as well.

*Source: the Arts Education Partnership’s “Champions of Change” report

APRIL 2002 : TABLE OF CONTENTS