One major area from where we start learning things right after birth is from our surroundings. The very idea of different colors, languages, and cultures is something that we grasp from the environment around us. And art is simply a representation of the things that happen on a daily basis in our surroundings. What is even more interesting is the way an art piece accumulates the different things of beauty around us and puts it together to convey a meaning.
I have always felt that as much as theory and information are important in educating us, equally important is understanding the arts and becoming a part of it. For me, art becomes the perfect amalgamation of theory and practice; of action and emotion. It allows a person to express on the canvas whatever he has learned in his class. Furthermore, this can be in diverse forms. It can be a painting, a sketch, a poem, an article, a photograph, a song, a movie, or a video. Does art have any limitations? Art itself teaches us to think beyond our imagination, beyond what we know, and beyond what we think is possible.
This makes me feel that as diligently we cultivate a habit of learning and practicing in a student, with the same level of vigor, we should keep motivating students to regularly express themselves through art. It is usually seen that when kids are young, they participate and are encouraged to participate to a great extent in art and extra-curricular activities. But when they grow and move to higher classes, the focus shifts more to academics. A child has to choose either Science or Commerce or in some cases Humanities. Very few students go for what one may call the core field of arts. Does that mean that only a few students have the talent or the skill required for it? Or does that mean that very few are allowed to go beyond the mainstream?
This is an age of multidisciplinary approaches; these are times of intersectionality. We as teachers and educators should encourage an interdisciplinary approach to art as well. Expressing an incident of prime importance to History can make a remarkable painting; several mathematical expressions can be wrapped around in a couplet and a whole movie can be made around a scientific concept. There is so much more to what we see, what we learn, and what we are capable of expressing. Art knows no limitations just like our imagination. Let’s allow individuals including kids and adults to keep making discoveries in arts and introducing to the world a different perspective every day.
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