Summer Arts: Creative Discovery in the Classroom
Guest post: Porter, age 16, has been spending his summer internship as a classroom assistant with our Rainier Vista Youth Art Program through Teens in Public Service (TIPS). In the Rainier Vista neighborhood, Nature Consortium hosts summer art classes for youth at the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club and the Rainier Vista Neighborhood House. Every summer, TIPS offers teens paid internships with nonprofits across Puget Sound. In this post, Porter describes the highlights of his experience thusfar.
I walked into the Boys and Girls Club the first day and was met by a wall of sound. The Games Room was in full swing. Kids were packed in participating in games or sitting nearby being active spectators. I made my way through them to the stairs and proceeded to make my way up to the Arts Studio. As soon as I entered the hall way, the noise died down and I was standing outside of a peaceful art room. Little did I know this is not always the case.
While kids are participating in classes here, they are almost as rowdy as the ones in the Games Room. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing. Though sometimes the noise and energy can become distracting, and thus the kids are asked to quiet down, this is all just evidence of how fun and exciting art is for these kids. They come into the Arts Studio with an enthusiasm that translates over into the art they create. Whether or not the kids are actually good with art is not the point. The point is that they are expressing themselves among their peers in a positive, healthy way.
I enjoy working with the kids in the Youth Art Program because they are for the most part not a hassle. The programs are all drop-in, so the kids can choose when they want to come and when they want to leave. The outcome of this is the kids who attend are there because they truly want to participate. Sure, the kids can get distracted (and be a distraction themselves), but didn’t we all do that as kids? I enjoy working with the kids because they all have a smile on their faces for some or almost all of the classes. They are easy to interact with and will strike up a conversation with you.
To be honest, I was foolishly nervous around the kids when I first started my internship. It took a lot for me to begin to interact with them, and while I was quiet the first 20 minutes of the class the kids started to talk to me, which helped me come out of my shell. The art room is bursting with outgoing personalities. Even the kids who aren’t as talkative or outgoing still show off their personality through their artwork. In a world where people are constantly judging and grading others on how well they do, the Nature Consortium’s art classes provide a place where kids can express their personalities without being told whether or not it was “good enough”.
Personally I was not always able to go to art classes when I was younger due to constant cuts to arts budgets in schools across the nation. While we had art maybe once a week, I found myself straying away from it because it was always the same drawing or painting exercises that I didn’t particularly enjoy. Art became something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do. Luckily, I was introduced to music and began playing the trombone, which I have continued to play for the last 6 years. This is where I express my artistic side, and it is great that Nature Consortium gives students multiple opportunities to express their artistic side(s). If they don’t enjoy the open art classes at the Art Studio he/she can go to the Hip Hop Dance lessons on Monday or the Cooking Class on Thursday. At the Neighborhood House, a kid interested in photography and composition can participate in the Nature Snaps program on Tuesday. On Wednesday kids excited about the environment can go to Eco Adventures. If neither of those sparks any interest, there is always African Song, Drum, and Dance on Fridays, a fun way to explore traditional African music and dance.
There is never a “right way” to participate in the arts or only one way to participate, as long as one is being respectful to others around them. When students start to realize this, they can start to find ways in which they enjoy the arts. Art is important to me because it gives me an outlet. I can express my feelings in a way that doesn’t hurt others around me. If I feel mad or angry, I can express that through art instead of through physical interaction, which will help protect me and the people I am around. Art isn’t the only way to positively express these emotions, but it is a good one, and letting kids explore ways in which art speaks to them will help them find this outlet.
– Porter, age 16, TIPS intern