Menu:

 

Every child is an artist

Date Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007
Author: Christen Pears

With hours spent in front of the television or playing video games at home and an emphasis on academic success and preparing for a career at school, the lifestyle of today’s youngsters creates little interest in art or time to enjoy it but Lisa Howie, Bermuda National Gallery’s new Director of Education, has different ideas.

 

“There is a lot of competition for their interest but once they’re inside the gallery they love it. I had a group here in last week and some of them had never been in an art gallery before but at the end when I asked them if they’d enjoyed it, every single hand went up. Children love art. The challenge is introducing them to it.”

 

Lisa, who has a Masters in Education is the former head of English at Bermuda High School for Girls. She officially started in her new post last month although she ran BNG’s Summer Camps programme throughout July. She fizzes with energy and exudes the kind of enthusiasm found only among the best of teachers.

 

The annual camps are a cornerstone of BNG’s education programme. This year children from the age of five upwards participated in a wide variety of activities, ranging from creating collages from recycled materials and making pop art. They met new people, including some of the artists whose work they’d been studying. They were introduced to new artistic experiences. Some, for example had never worked with acrylics, while others learned the importance of basic drawing techniques.  They also encountered new concepts such as satire, the nude and the idea of the hero within.

 

“I tried to challenge them with some intense, intellectual activity. I think they were changed by it and I think that was healthy but it was also a lot fun,” explains Lisa.

 

The children also learned about themselves, particularly in relation to their expectations and limitations.

 

“Sometimes the final product doesn’t match up with what they envisioned and it was very interesting to watch children being very self-critical, particularly the older ones. There were some campers who really startled themselves by what they did and others got very stunted because it wasn’t working as they wanted it to. It was important to get through to them that it wasn’t about judgement. I always say to students that if you are doing the best you possibly can then it’s perfect.

 

“Picasso said: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.” Children are capable of doing anything that they set their minds to but something happens along the way; self-criticism and self-doubt get in. Art gives kid the opportunity to move away from those behaviours.”

 

Lisa firmly believes that the arts, whether visual arts, creative writing or music, should be part of every school curriculum and that every child, whether artistically inclined or not, can benefit from arts education.

 

“It’s a really important part of our psyche. Creating something is very primal and very much part of our nature to develop that self-worth and pride that’s attached to it. It’s one subject where you’re not going to make a lot of money but it’s really beneficial for the psyche and it teaches a lot of skills that are useful in other subjects such as thinking laterally.”

 

During her time as an English teacher, she often found that her entry point to a text was visual. “Most learners are visual learners. I have never met a student that didn’t want to look at art as a segue into literature,” she says.

 

Art can also be very therapeutic and there’s plenty of evidence to show the benefits. It can, for example, help youngsters work through issues such as grief, abuse or medical problems. It can provide direction for wayward children or a means of expression for those with learning disabilities.

 

Lisa says: “When you are creating something everything else falls away. Because you’re so focused on what you’re doing it ends up being meditative. Getting into art is something fun. It’s tactile, it can be messy and it’s a learning process whatever you do.”

 

In addition to Summer Camp, BNG runs education activities throughout the year, the next of which will be based around the forthcoming exhibition, Living with Art - the collection of Alitash Kebede. Regarded as one of the finest collections of African American art in the US, it contains 75 works by 39 artists from the 1930s to 2000.

 

One of the key challenges for Lisa will be putting the works in context. “It’s not all about visual arts. It’s about the history of African American art, it’s about literature,” she explains and she plans to link up with individuals and organizations who can introduce youngsters to the social and historical background of the artists and the development of other, contemporaneous art forms.

 

BNG’s education programme extends to adults as well as children and includes lectures, seminars and film shows. Lisa encourages everyone, child or adult, art lover or not, to come and see for themselves.

 

“Society is all about making money. Where is the space for art when you have to bring home thousands of dollar at month to create a lifestyle? I hope that we do still have space for art either in school or our personal lives. I want to encourage people to come inside the City Hall. A lot of people come here for the Bermuda Festival or to get their parking vouchers but there are two galleries here – BNG and the Bermuda Society of Arts.

 

“I believe really strongly in BNG and what it stands for. I think the work that’s going on here is really significant to our cultural development but also it’s a great, calming space and a sweet place to stop by.”

For more information visit www.bermudanationalgallery.com

Copyright © 2006 MediaCom  ::   About Us   ::   Contact Us   ::   Privacy   ::   Home