Art Expands One's Depth of Understanding by Jazmyn

Art Expands One's Depth of Understanding by Jazmyn - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

Art is everywhere. There's art in music, architecture, and nature to name just a few. Art relates to the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is appealing or of more than ordinary significance. An education without art would result in schooling that fails to show value, ingenuity, and innovation in curriculum. The word art is derived from an ancient Indo-European root that means "to fit together”. Art is about fitting things together like words, images, and thoughts. It is the expression or application of human creative skill to produce beautiful works that hold emotional and symbolic power, in which we see in paintings, sculptures, and drawings. There are so many types of art that intertwine in our daily lives like photography, public art, sculpture, commercial art, fine art, and the "art of" in reference to knowledge or skill. My art elective course influenced my education, because it helped me realize the importance of knowledge and perspective.

 Adolescence is about establishing your identity, and I related this to the way art grasp the world. "Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence," sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has said. Arts education, however, does aid in solving problems in school. It's closely linked to almost everything that parents want their children to take away from school. Aspects like academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and opportunity can all benefit from art education as I learned from personal experience. Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning increased my motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork. I believe art prepares kids for jobs, to be citizens, and teaches them to be human beings who can enjoy the deeper forms of beauty. When I used to think of art I thought of drawing and painting. However, my art teacher deepened my understanding of what art truly is. I found this through my experience with how works of art elicited emotion beyond my capacity for words, but instead through sensations of wonder, hope, despair, and adoration.

As a minority, I recognized that art plays a central part in the creation of culture, which is another reason I found art to be encouraging to my education. Art really can communicate beyond language, as it appeals to our common humanity and links disparities in society. I believe if more people sought knowledge about a variety of the world’s artistic traditions, it could engender mutual respect globally. Art is more personal, because it shares the way we experience and interpret the world around us. Art and beauty are intertwined, as art can be made of beautiful aspects. Just as beauty can be found in how nature paints a snowy mountain scene before our eyes, I found value and worth in the complexity of education and learning through this course.