In times like these, you may be wondering, "why do I need to take Art class?" Or, "why does my child take art?"

For one thing, it creates an outlet for stress, which most of us have enough of! I was talking to a fellow parent recently while participating in a parent "Drop-In" class at Nazareth College's Saturday Art School, and he expressed to me that he has "no ability" in the Visual Arts. After I explained my opinion that you don't have to have a natural talent in Art to be good at it, he did say that he had never felt more relaxed than he did when he left the class we were experiencing.

Art is everywhere. It is in the commercials we watch on T.V., the billboards we see on 390, the roadsigns that direct us what to do "out there", the websites we visit, the magazines we read, and the clothes we wear. Without art we would not have buildings and structures, menus in restaurants, packaging on foods and products, or illustrations in books and magazines. 1.25 million Americans currently work in the visual arts.

As an aside, Art helps you form connections in other subjects such as Math, Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. Arts Education equips students to form mental images, which can be used to solve problems—an ability that chemists, engineers, and architects use to create models and that inventors use to think up new ideas. Student involvement in the arts lowers drop-out rates and keeps kids inspired and in school. They should not be looked at as a way to boost test scores.

The following link summarizes it all. NAEA Arts in a digital age https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/learning-in-a-visual-age