Changing Course

It is an understatement to say it’s been a challenging year so far. I’m not going to wax poetic about the challenges we’ve all been experiencing, there are already plenty of blogs, vlogs, memes and social media posts. It is more clear now than ever that we are on a different path. A new path that requires different approaches, different voices, and different driving forces.

In March, I needed to pivot and I started offering a way for people to connect through art virtually. I was apprehensive. I had no idea how virtual art sessions would go. To my surprise it was successful; the premise and new platform offered a new way to share my love for art education and printmaking. On the screen, I saw people engaging in printmaking together, and sharing their individual experiences getting through a global pandemic while video conferencing. In my mind, these conversations were highlighting the role of art education has to empower people facing challenges and how it helps us open up and be vulnerable. The massive and sweeping cuts to education that took place during a pandemic demonstrated to me that we need to fight to keep arts in schools. I need to advocate and uphold the valuable role art education plays in society. In more recent weeks it has become even more clear that we can never go back to normal and a ‘pivot’ or adapting is not enough at this point. We need to rebuild.

When I think about why art education needs to be a core element in our education I think about how art gives people a voice. Art allows us to communicate when we don’t have the words. Art brings people together, to both share experience and understand different experience. Art fosters divergent thinking. Art makes us question and challenge norms. Art connects us to our humanity.

I am rebuilding Studio Art Sessions from the ground up because we need the focus to be on making humans more human. We need to empathize, we need to communicate, we need to be able to think differently, and we need to question-challenge-change the systems that operate in our society.

Please note: While I work on rebuilding the Studio Art Sessions website will be under construction, however video resources on the File Share page and the Blog will still be accessible. If you want to get in touch you can email info@studioartsessions.ca