High School Mural Teaches More Than Creativity

It’s interesting that I ran across this alert about a  high school mural painted by students and then a separate posting about how creativity, if taught in schools, also teaches critical thinking.

This mural was painted in the lobby of Grandview High School in Missouri by students on their own free time. The subjects relate to academics as well as culture and creativity. If you listen to the video link, you’ll see that the students involved received more than just a pat on the back for the finished product. They also gained self-confidence through the creative process of creating and then painting the mural.

On a side note, this is the very first mural that I painted, I’m guessing when I was about seven years old. I’m the one in the pig-tails (at the time). I keep this photo in my Art Portfolio so my prospective clients can see that I got an early start to my painterly profession.

The clarinet in the high school mural reminds me of the wonderful one painted on the side of the hotel in New Orleans that I posted a while back.

This article, Is our Education System Promoting Critical Thinking, Creativity, Innovation in Students in IPP Media as sourced from The Guardian caught my attention when it suggests that if creativity was encouraged as a method of teaching, then it could help promote “growth and sustainable development” through the process of critical thinking that leads to innovation and expression.

I’ve been having many discussions with my younger son about the importance of traditional education.  I’m accepting of a creative and experiential method but I also believe that this can be instituted within traditional learning — if taught and encouraged by the teacher and applied by the student. There has to be production and or an assessment of the outcome of these efforts so there can be review of knowledge gained and progression of performance.  My son and I are in agreement that it does him well to learn the value of working within the “real world” or a while so he can better appreciate his education. He’ll have to be pretty “creative” however in how he’s gonna get that job.

Here’s an opportunity for artists as mentioned on The Daily Pilot — a worldwide competition to select artists of multiple fields to provide ideas and artistic labor to for Great Park in Irvine, Orange County, CA. The prize is free studio space in exchange for ideas and work within this “living park”:

[Four] Artists will be considered from anywhere in the world and from all artistic backgrounds — visual and performing arts, architecture and design, film and cinematography, literature and poetry and others. They can apply through Friday at the park’s website, http://www.ocgp.org.

The artist will be given a $7,500, six-month stipend paid from the Great Park’s Arts, Culture and Heritage $850,000 annual budget.

In exchange, the artists will hold open studio hours in which they will interact with the public and host workshops, seminars and lectures, Korn said.