Sidewalk Lack Art: A Brain Study

Throughout my early teen years, I was exposed to different mediums of art and discovered that I could express myself through more channels than just paper. Although Barry found comfort in her 11 x 17 newsprint and some paint, I was able to focus my energy on making music and taking photographs. Without my art teachers, I wouldn’t have the expressive outlet I do today. My childhood was not filled with unhappiness as Lynda Barry’s was, but from both backgrounds, we found a warmth from the exposure of art that the educational system gave to us.

This course will enable the student to understand the historical, social, and psychological factors involved in the creation of works of art through an

The artwork I chose to view through a gendered perspective was John Sloan’s Three AM. Three A.M. was made in 1909 and is an oil painting on canvas. John Sloan describes the painting as a look at a “curious two room household” ("Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object: Three A.M."). I chose this painting because it reminded me of times I have shared with my best friend. The scene reminded me of the countless nights I have spent with my best friend in the kitchen baking cookies and gossiping. When I went to the museum, I was with my best friend and the first thing that came to mind when we saw this was, “This looks like us in my kitchen like two weekends ago.” It made me think, if someone had just captured a small moment of us and painted it, it would look very similar to us. Sloan characterized himself as a sort of “window watcher” (Coco 1), which is evident in the way he painted the two women. He painted the room in a “binocular view” (Coco 1) that looks like it was painted while watching these people from a window. This painting has many gendered aspects, some of which are stereotypes. My gender, as well as the artist’s gender, influence the understanding of the work of art.

The arts are a fundamental element of ones human condition as it provides a medium for the freedom of self-expression such as thoughts, ideas, beliefs and culture. There is a natural necessity to create as it shares an insight into identity and culture (Wright, 2003). Through implementing arts into early childhood, it can foster and support a child’s mean making, self-expression and holistic development (Ministry of Education, 1996). The arts play an immense role in a child’s holistic development as it supports the links between body, cognition, spirit and culture. It also has multiple benefits to a child’s visual, spatial, aural and bodily-kinaesthetic modes of learning or multimodal leaning (Wright, 2003). A children who contributes participates and views art, experience and demonstrate imagination, creativity, pride and pleasure. Through this, children are able to record their thoughts and feelings without verbally communicating. In all environments and cultures, there is a vast amount of visual arts. These arts can be

Sousa informs us that the arts are very basic to the human experience (Sousa, 2011). These arts can be delivered through music, dance, motion and the visual arts. Sylwester interjects that the arts play an important role in brain development (n.d., p.32). This brain development begins when children are infants. To expand upon the initial ground work in infancy, schools should foster this position and build upon the early groundwork. Sylwester states that scientists now knows that intervention of the arts must begin early, and that parents should not be solely responsible for these cultural art benefits (n.d., p. 34). With this in mind, this early intervention, aside from the home, would then fall on the schools influences. As teachers, we must incorporate the arts in

It is important for children to be able to practise and experiment with different techniques and materials as it helps children to develop control, confidence and technique ; pupils should be taught to ‘improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials’ (DfE, 2013, p 177).

For some unexplainable reason it is a common belief that the fine arts have no place in the education system. People want to say that the arts are unimportant and that students should put all of their focus on subjects such as Math or English. Parents want students to pursue a “meaningful” career (e.g. doctors, lawyers, teachers, or architects) so they encourage and sometimes force their children to ignore the arts completely. What these people do not know or maybe simply ignore however, is that the presence of fine arts in a student’s life is vital to the integrity of his or her academic success because they increase their brain’s attention span and cognitive processes.

The gratitude gained from assignments in the arts greatly impact their performance in class. Winner Ellen stated in her article on arts throughout the school day, “from improving their ability to express themselves and honing their creativity, to promoting the value of hard work in achieving certain objectives, arts education can push children and adolescents to become more effective students and, in the long run, can better prepare them to navigate the challenges of the 21st century” (Ellen, Stéphan). The improvement that is seen in the classroom is observed here. The author is saying that the classroom will become a more effective aspect of schools when the arts are incorporated into the system. Many times educators overlook the arts and they are not included into basic learning, this in turn causes the classroom to lack some of the skills that are achieved in the

Art: Another Language for Learning presents true stories about childhood development, with accompanying discussions about the role of art processes as well as products. It helps teachers and parents understand what they see when they look at children's art - and how to respond so that they may extend communication and advance learning. Authors Cohen and Gainer provide an ideal resource for anyone without previous art training now working with children. Moreover, they encourage teachers, students, and parents to discard preconceptions of art education as an accouterment to curriculum and embrace the myriad ways art can unlock doors, encourage expression, and enhance learning.

Being apart of arts is involved with getting better in math, reading, critical thinking, verbal skills, cognitive ability, and problem solving. It also improves social skills, motivation, and confidence. The Arts Education Partnership stated that arts in school could be a big benefit for students. For example if a student decided to take visual arts, it would improve organization of writing; skills in reasoning about different images and having them to think artistically building their creativity skills. Or if a student takes music, it would improve math achievement and proficiency because they would learn to count notes to play instruments. Music would also bring up SAT verbal scores. “It’s true that students involved in the arts do better in school and on their SATs than those who are not involved,” write researchers Lois Hetland and

It seems like whenever you open yourself up to art, it opens you up and activates certain parts in your brain that wouldn 't normally be activated. There has been recent research that proves that arts actually help with students’ education and learning abilities. A wise man named Hal Sparks once said, “People think that the arts are optional and they aren’t. They teach a level of emotional depth that´s equally important to mathematic skill. You can replace some math skills with a calculator if you know how to operate the thing, but there 's no calculator for human interaction” Sandra Ruppert explains that students who are involved in arts learning experiences improve their achievement in learning and life. Researchers in the University of California surveyed high school and middle school students and the students who were more involved in arts had higher scores in standardized tests than those who were involved in little arts programs. Also, they recorded that the highly involved students watched less television and were less bored. (Ruppert) You would think that’s good, but arts programs are slowly decreasing. Music is said to keep your brain healthy as it ages, since listening to music or even

The study of the arts belongs in every K-12 classroom. Participation in the arts is correlated with increases in cognitive capacity, reading, mathematics, critical thinking, and verbal skill (Lynch, n.d.). Artwork learning can additionally enhance focus, motivation, trust, and teamwork. Arts programming in schools helps close a gap that 's left many a youngster behind and acts as an equalizer of sorts. Children of wealthy parents are exposed to the arts whereas the children from low-income families do not have the same exposure. The research behind this paper will show that art belongs in the K-12 curricula in schools since education is fundamental to a child’s development.

The arts can a allow student to express themselves better than math or science. To watch a child completely engaged in an arts experience is to recognize that the brain is on, driven by the aesthetic and emotional imperative to make meaning, to say something, to represent what matters (Booth et al). Self-expression is crucial for the development of students identity. When students feel like they can openly express themselves, they can begin to explore their interests and strengths (“Self-Expression through Art”). Art as a subject leads students to

It has been found in children that during their early development age arts are influential. It has also been found that brain capacity is affected by art activities, making it outstanding brain food. Children’s sense of open-ended play is engaged by the arts which develops multi-sensory, social-emotional and cognitive skills. Multiple experiences with open-ended arts it has the ability to build nerve circuits in the brain that has a positive effect on how children preform in school, in social relationships, and in life. As children progress from pre-school, elementary, and beyond art continues to provide opportunities for creativity self esteem, and brain development. Research confirms this by stating “..Increasing number of studies has suggested connections amount cognition, social and emotional development, and the arts.”

When I was a little girl, under the influence of my mother, I enjoyed reading. Especially, I liked to read some fairy tales, which increased my curiosity about the world and encouraged me to be a brave girl. Then, I tried to paint some pictures from these stories. These involvements inspired my love of painting. Since then, the passion for art has continued to now. Therefore, experiences from my childhood have a deep impact on my personal values, which are adventure and learning. And my passion of art allowed me to develop more professional knowledge to be an arts manager.