18 Dec 2016 Adventures in Art Kids’ Classes
Boost Children’s Well-Being, Now and in the Future
Is your child interested in the arts? Kavita Singh, our own Program Coordinator at Nickel Plate Arts, shares how her childhood dream of becoming an artist came true.
“When I grow up, I want to be….”
How many kids complete that statement with dream careers like ballerina, actress, race car driver or artist? When I was little, I stated with complete confidence that I would forge a career in the arts, which made my parents very nervous.
At first, they weren’t sure what to do with a child so passionately interested in the arts. To keep my doodles off their walls, they enrolled me in art & craft classes at school and local organizations. I learned things like how to make prints out of leaves, use tin foil to emboss and create stamps, and the ins and out of using a manual film camera, which led me to study photography in college. These experiences strengthened my love for the arts and helped me build confidence to embrace my individuality as a child — all while acquiring new skills in the arts.
Being exposed to the arts since I was young and having the opportunity to participate in classes, programs and camps helped me foster my creativity in productive ways. In my photography classes, I learned how science and math play a huge role in darkroom photography, improving my skills in those subjects in school. As an adult, I contribute my creative problem-solving skills and innovative thinking to my early relationship with the visual arts. My arts experiences also exposed me to diverse cultures, which helped me be open-minded toward others at an early age. As an added bonus, I did end up making a career in the arts! Still need a reason why you might want to expose your kids to the arts? Here are my top 7 reasons why arts experiences are essential to a child’s wellbeing and how it helps them grow as individuals:
- The arts help you build creative problem-solving skills that can be applied to many other subjects or tasks.
- There is often more than one right answer. Looking at something from multiple perspectives helps your child consider alternate solutions to problems.
- The arts help kids observe, describe, analyze and interpret, thus building their critical and creative thinking skills.
- Working with others to create or build something can help kids with their communication skills and teach them to be open-minded. Collaboration can help bridge differences.
- The arts help cultivate social skills, build community and increase a child’s sense of belonging or attachment to that community.
- Art can act as an alternate method of communication, in a language that is universal and knows no boundaries, allowing kids the opportunity to express their feelings with or without words.
- Creating artwork instills pride. After pouring his or her heart and soul into a project and spending hours creating or building something, a child experiences an enormous sense of accomplishment. More opportunities mean more experiences, which can only nurture and help grow self-esteem and confidence.
Ready to get your budding artist started down the art path? Check out our 2016 Adventures in Art classes. First up: Lettering for Little Rebels, Tuesdays, 4-6 p.m., Jan. 5-Feb. 9.