For a very long period of time, human beings have struggled to express themselves. Art has helped change this phenomenon because it gives people room to not only express themselves but also to develop their intellect. In the sphere of education, much can be said on the role artistic activities play in the conscious development of people more so children. Art, can therefore, be said to be part of a person’s internal emotions, (Gardener 48) which only come out upon expression and this is the reason everyone looks at art from their own conscious driven perspectives.
John Dewey once said that transformative experience seen when creating and receiving art in does transform the people involved (11). It is from this perspective, therefore, that art leads to the development of human conscious because the transformation acts as a form of education. creating and responding to art in itself is education in totality by virtue of introducing perceptions that did not exist in the life of a person until they encountered a piece of art. The creation of art entails bringing the unconscious to the conscious and this change is what the world will see (Milbrath & Lightfoot 29).
Through their interaction with art, students will always get to understand and bring out their own distinctive ways of seeing and doing things (Tymieniecka 71). This happens in the unconscious. Upon creating pieces of art, students will have learnt on how consciousness is used to connect and understand art as well as the art making activity as a means of communicating and integrating their values with education (Read 119). This goes a long way into bringing out the imaginations of students and making a reality, their inner thoughts.
Works Cited
Dewey, John. Art as Experience. New York: Penguin Putman. 1934
Gardner, Howard. Art Education and Human development. Los Angeles: Paul Gerry. 1990
Milbrath, Constance, & Lightfoot, Cynthia. Art and Human Development. New York: Taylor & Francis 2013
Tymieniecka. Anna- Teresa. Human Creation Between Reality and Illusion. New York” Springer. 2005
