Current Exhibits

Teenworks & Kids’ Kreations 2024

The study of art, unlike most subjects, has an ongoing need to justify and defend its meaningful contribution to a core curriculum. The importance of art education is often defended by focusing on its benefits to other areas of academic pursuit, reducing the subject to a sidekick rather than appreciating the inherent benefits of art itself.  However, practicing and studying art holds many benefits for students’ cognitive and emotional development.

Creating art instills in students the ability to conceptualize and plan the steps necessary to bring a project to fruition. It develops their capacities for noticing nuances, details, and subtleties while creating and observing the world around them. While studying art, students learn to perceive relationships between parts, viewing them as a meaningful whole connected to the broader context of the subject matter. They learn to problem solve within the confines of rules of design and representation, and the limitation of their materials.

Discussing artwork leads students to acknowledge and understand the views and interpretations of others with different life experiences, and to perceive and interpret through their own lens. It creates a greater sense of self-awareness and helps to develop a language of self-expression. Art also provides a fulfilling experiential activity that can offer reprieve, accommodate different styles of learning, and, yes, even be of benefit to a student’s overall academic performance. With Teenworks & Kids’ Kreations, we celebrate these advantages and salute the ongoing pursuit of the arts by our local students and art instructors.