Q: Why is it important that parents foster a love for art or encourage their children to pursue art?
A: “I think for parents to just realize that the world is so visual now. With the evolution of careers and how people are problem-solving with creativity is where artists are needed,” says Kristen LoPresti, visual arts teacher at Beaumont School. “Artists can work things out and work through life lessons on a canvas, and then it’s kind of preparing them for real life problems. We put so much emphasis on knowledge and how we can verbalize things, and artists want to express what is beneath the knowledge. I am always telling students my favorite quote by Elliot Eisner: ‘Art is literacy of the heart,’ and for people to express emotionally, that is so undervalued in today’s society. Exposure is so important. Parents can really foster that curiosity and foster the experience of it, whether it’s going to museums with your kids or traveling to expose them to different perspectives on life, that’s what art offers.”
