The case for visual arts education

I recently had the opportunity to spend five consecutive Mondays teaching visual arts to the students at Houlton Elementary School and I have, for the past five years, been invited to teach art to the students at the Wellington School several times throughout each school year. These visual arts programs, supplemental to the regular curriculum, have been made possible through the generous support of the Parent-Teacher Organizations at both schools.
As a professional, working artist, I cannot overstate the importance of visual arts education beginning at the elementary school level and continuing through high school. I applaud the initiative of the parents and teachers at both schools in using their resources to expose the young students to additional instruction in the visual arts and it has, and hopefully will continue to be, an honor to be a part of these programs.
In my 25 years of teaching art to students of all ages, I have frequently encountered the misconception that the study of visual arts involves little beyond learning to create a likeness of the optical appearance of the world and that this is a skill held by a tiny minority of individuals who were born with “talent.” I believe that this misconception is at the core of the diminishing support for visual arts education in our public schools. If art is the realm for the select few fortunate enough to be born with “talent,” does it make sense to waste vital resources teaching it to the rest of our students? Yet, we teach English and math to all of our students, although only a handful might have the “talent” to become great poets or ground-breaking scientists.
Visual arts education is important for all of us. The study of visual arts is the study of the language of images — a language that has its own vocabulary, syntax and history — a language that we are all surrounded by every day. An understanding of the history and methodology of the visual arts doesn’t merely equip us with the skills to copy the appearance of nature or to appreciate the masterworks that hang in museums and galleries. It offers us a valuable way to communicate and to understand how and why we are affected by the myriad images that surround us on a daily basis: advertising, signage, architecture, television, etc.. Line, shape, color, proportion, scale, direction, and texture are components of a visual language, a language that can often times be more effective than verbal language, which can only be experienced in a linear way, and fluency in this visual language is beneficial — indeed, essential — to all of our students.
Visual arts instruction enhances creative thinking skills by teaching students how to solve problems that have more than one solution — sometimes a different solution for each student. In fact, recognizing and embracing one’s individuality is often the key to creating images that communicate effectively.
I often begin my introductory drawing classes, usually filled with students who claim that they can’t draw because they have no talent, with a simple demonstration in which I use four straight lines and three curved lines to form the letters b-o-o-k. I then use a few more straight and curved lines to create a simple line drawing of a book and explain that both are visual symbols created with a pencil on paper that represent the same thing and that the only reason they all know how to make the first symbol and not the second one is that they were taught how to make the first one beginning at an early age but they were never taught how to draw because visual arts training was not part of the regular academic curriculum.
More visual arts instruction, especially at the early stages of academic development, is crucial if we are to nurture creative thinkers and effective communicators for coming generations. I, as we all should be, am grateful for the efforts and support of the Houlton Elementary School and the Wellington School PTOs in allowing me the opportunities to share my knowledge, passion and skill with our young students.
 Frank Sullivan. of Littleton, is a full-time professional artist and art educator. He holds a BA in visual arts from the College of the Holy Cross, a graphic design certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and studied drawing and printmaking under a graduate fellowship at the American University.