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"On Cultivating the Art Habit"

4 Comments -

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Anonymous Heather Saunders said...

I agree with you about museums' prohibitive admission fees. Your post made me think of Matthew Syed's chapter on the nature/nurture debate surrounding child prodigies in Bounce (HarperCollins, 2010), especially his discussion of the Polgar family. Laszlo Polgar set out to raise three stellar chess players through early exposure and a healthy dose of encouragement, with great success. He chose chess over visual art since it's more objective, but it makes me wonder what would have happened had he chosen art as the area of focus. It certainly makes a case for improving arts education for youth...not to create prodigies, but to enrich their lives.

May 16, 2011 at 8:46 PM

Blogger Leah Sandals said...

Hi Heather,

Thanks for your comment. Interesting... I hadn't heard of that book. Will have to check it out.

I guess one aspect of my feeling on this is that the older I get, the more remarkable I find young chilren's ability to learn (or at least do that soaking-up kind of learning) compared to adults.

At the same time, I was really only introduced to visual art as an adult--or at least young adult, age 20.

So I basically think access to arts education is important for all ages, though it may have its most persistent impacts if introduced regularly at a young age.

May 16, 2011 at 8:59 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Leah,

Thanks for this have passed it along and of course as an arts educator how can I not 100% behind public arts education! pretty shocking to hear those statistics about canadian schools, having been teaching in priveleged international school i've been out of the real workd loop...what is happening Canada?! And why aren't parents/voters outraged and changing this?!

peas,
Catherine

May 18, 2011 at 7:10 AM

Blogger Leah Sandals said...

Hi Cabi,
Thanks for your comment. I do feel when I read stuff like this that I'd like to take some arts ed courses, just to get more exposed to the articulation of these philosophies and priorities.

As for Canadian voters... I can't presume to say. I think a lot of people are feeling stretched and fearful economically, a situation in which the arts seem to shrink as a priority--even if they themselves can be a source of jobs.

I can empathize with this position and at the same time I wonder what our arts institutions have done to contribute to this sense of marginality as well.

In any case, I'm very impressed with you and all the other arts educators working away out there! Keep it up!

May 18, 2011 at 8:24 AM

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