🎨 Arts education🎨 is, and always will be, essential to the development of children and young people.
It's often the first thing to go when budgets get cut - it's generally less profitable in later life to be an artist than a scientist, so the arts frequently face the chopping block in the name of preparing young people for the world of work.
I've talked before about having the right to choose a career in the arts if you want, but arts education comes down to something much more fundamental than that.
Art is something we've always done. Before we moved on to technology, whether the wheel or the space shuttle, we painted and sang and decorated.
If a school or college's primary function is to teach young people about the world and how to be a well-rounded person, students really need to have the opportunity to experience different types of creativity - whether that be writing, drawing, painting, making music or creating a wonky clay pot.
Education in the formative years of life is the space for young people to engage with art just because they can, without necessarily needing to be 'good'.
At best, they'll discover a unique and rewarding talent. At worst, they'll have the opportunity to think differently and experience creating something.
Arts education is something that needs protecting from a single-minded move towards productivity prioritised above all else. Making art is part of what makes us human, not something we should be doing away with in the name of economic growth.
#ArtsEducation #Creativity
Vice Dean of the faculty of Architecture & Planning, King Abdulaziz University.
4moExploring, imagining, processing