Benefits of Studying Art
I grew up around artists all my life. My mom is a professional artist, my sister is an art historian/conservator married to a contemporary artist, I designed clothing with a focus on fashion illustration, and our family and friends are mostly from the art community of Manila, Philippines. Being blessed with this kind of upbringing, I saw firsthand how taking up something creative augmented one’s quality of life. Within my family, I saw how having more art materials than toys in our youth made us more resourceful, insightful and empathic. Which is what we’ll be sharing with you today.
So what do we gain from studying art? As creators we learn techniques, artistic foundation, composition via application of artistic skills. By training These abilities that you develop in time, may also help you in other aspects of your daily life. So let’s get to it!
Having imagination doesn’t peg you into the creative world. It enhances your thinking so that the logical side of you can flourish as well.
What Do We Get Out of Studying Art?
Improve your academic performance
By studying art, whether as an activity or a subject matter, will improve your reasoning skills. Your ability to analyze, evaluate or synthesize information.
According to an article by the Public School Review, “Research conducted in public schools in Maryland in 2011 further shows the link between the arts and improved academic achievement.
In courses in which the arts are integrated with math, science, social studies, and other subjects, students demonstrated marked improvements in reading and math.
Grow your creativity, including creative problem solving skills
As we apply visual techniques to add color, texture or other elements, we hone our ability to think-outside-the-box. This form of thinking can translate to other areas of study, including more academic subjects.
Apart from the 3 reasoning skills mentioned above, abstract thinking, creative thinking, information processing and problem-solving is developed when one studies the visual arts.
Having imagination doesn’t peg you into the creative world. It enhances your thinking so that the logical side of you can flourish as well.
Gain more confidence and independence
Speaking from personal experience, I drew more than I played with toys growing up. At 8 years old, I was able to draw anime and Disney style drawings. My teachers would put me in charge of decorating the board for the day with a new mural I would make in different colored chalks.
No other kid had that privilege except me. It went on throughout the next few years too. It felt like a super power. I wasn’t good at sports, nor was I a natural at math or science but every day, I made my classroom brighter with a new way to claim that we were going to have a good day.
In hindsight this helped with my identity. That I was a strong creative person. As one improves in their art they find their voice.
Expand your attention span and ability to focus
In a book called Ikigai, The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life, it talks about going into “flow”. Described as “The pleasure, delight, creativity and process when we are completely immersed in life.”
While some people feel this in other activities such as sports, playing music or painting, we sharpen our ability to focus because we learn how to identify the feeling of being engrossed in something. The more we do the more we can apply it to other things.
Develop your fine motor skills
By learning how to move a brush, a pencil or marker, we learn about how our hands and physical strength can work together.
How much or less pressure is needed to create clouds, shade the body, or produce a uniform color on a solid object. These are called fine motor skills.
These abilities come in handy when you have to do delicate work, they teach your hands to be steady, and be more intune with your sense of touch.
“Art making in a therapeutic environment can create changes in neural network connections as well as increase cognitive flexibility. As options for solving a “creative task” problem expand during the creative process, so do opportunities for neuroplasticity and long-term changes in neural networks in the brain.”
- Kristin Kane
Build your critical-thinking skills
Critical thinking is the mental process of analyzing and evaluating a situation to form judgment and/or opinion. This is not a skill that develops a judgemental attitude but an evaluative one that will eventually improve one’s decision-making skills.
How do art classes provide this? Art requires lengthy periods of observation. Studying a painting by a master is a complex process that requires the viewer to take in a piece of work little by little. Taking into account, the elements and principles used, the history at the time this painting was taken and how society viewed art when the piece was created.
Van Gogh is beautiful today but his techniques were seen as lacking in skill and unheard of at the time. Which eventually led to his poor demise. Fast forward to today, his works made the impressionist movement. By processing all this information, can we form our interpretation. By turning this process into practice can we unlock this very valuable mental capability.
Increase your brain plasticity
In an article called Art Therapy and Neuroplasticity, “Art making in a therapeutic environment can create changes in neural network connections as well as increase cognitive flexibility. As options for solving a “creative task” problem expand during the creative process, so do opportunities for neuroplasticity and long-term changes in neural networks in the brain.”
This means the brain actually creates neural pathways to accommodate these new techniques in reasoning that one develops over time. The human body is so amazing that the way we think can reshape our brain.
Developing Empathy
Creating art is an emotional and intellectual process. Most artists depict an image often focus on conveying an emotion. So how to do you create something without evoking feelings within yourself?
Personally, I used drawing and painting to release the pent up emotions in school about not fitting in. It taught me how to listen to myself, Listen to others and learn about anything and everything.
These days I have channeled my creative abilities into more performative arts. The emotional intelligence I acquired helped me figure out the mental or physical blocks my students have and help them get through it.
I believe that creating art is a human need. One of the early milestones of every human being is to be able to stack blocks. It shows that you have gross and fine motor skills as well as the interest to make something.
That said, we invite all of you to peruse the myriad of classes we provide here at Megapixels to encourage and keep on fanning the flame your children have to make art. Whether it’s drawing, painting, photography, or writing we have a little bit of everything for your kids to take up.
Good Luck Artists!!!
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