Cultural arts – things like dance, music, visual art, and theater – are important to start exploring with your kids from a young age. The arts let you expand your mind, explore your creativity, and reflect on our culture and society. When you instill an interest in and love for cultural arts in kids when they are young, they have a chance to explore ways of expressing themselves and have the opportunity to find lifelong interests.
Importance of Cultural Arts
Cultural arts include visual art, music, dance, theater in all their forms. The most obvious reason the arts are important is because they promote thought and creativity. They are not only all products of people’s creative minds but they cause everyone who looks at or watches them to think about what they mean to them. That right there is best part about cultural arts. They promote and encourage imagination. Even when you are not the one creating or performing, being exposed to cultural arts provides an opportunity to engage with them and let your imagination run wild.
Cultural arts also give people an outlet for their feelings. Creating art is a great way to process experiences and feelings – either through creating and participating in or even by watching and appreciating art.
Appreciating the cultural arts also allows people to expand their horizons and consider other points of view. Someone might like some types of a particular form of art but not others – for instance, you might love ballet but not enjoy modern dance or you might like modern art but have no interest in looking at paintings from the Renaissance. The cultural arts also reflect society and the culture around which it is created. Appreciating different types of art lets you appreciate different perspectives. When you expose your kids to cultural arts from an early age, they learn to think about and appreciate different perspectives.
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Instilling a Love of Cultural Arts in Kids
It is easy to instill a love and appreciation for cultural arts in your kids. The biggest key is exposure. It is not necessary to push any one particular type of art or pressure your kids to like art in general. All you have to do is provide opportunities for your kids to decide if and what types of art they like. They will inevitably like some things and not others. That is perfectly fine.
Here are some ways to expose your kids to and instill in them a love of all types of cultural arts.
Visual Art
There are so many ways to expose kids of any age to art. Even young kids can enjoy walking around the museum and exploring the different styles of art. While younger kids are not necessarily capable of spending hours at an art museum, a half hour or so of exploring a small section of the museum is enough to start exposing them to art.
Make a game out of exploring the museum together. Pick a section that has lots of bright colors or cool sculptures. Walk around pointing out a dog, a tiger, and a pretty lady in the paintings. Ask even your very young kids to find a painting with the color red or a bird. This allows them to start looking at and examining paintings and sculptures. As they get older, you can explore the museum longer or venture to different parts of the museum and ask about which paintings they like best and why.
Plus, there are all kinds of art museums to explore. Some are small and full of local or regional artists while others are large and include world famous paintings. Some museums focus on a certain type of art like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which has an amazing modern art collection. Explore what you have access to. It’s all art and it is all beneficial in terms of teaching your kids to appreciate art. You (and your kids) do not have to like every artist or every style of art you see. It is about seeing it, thinking about it, and drawing your own conclusions about how you feel.
Looking at art is obviously a great way to expose kids to cultural arts, but so is creating art! Drawing, coloring, and painting are all wonderful ways to help kids appreciate art. It is even more so when you connect it to the art you see in the museum. Pick a painting or sculpture you saw when you visited the museum and recreate it at home. Learn about an artist and try to create art like them. Then go visit a museum that has the artist’s art so you can see it in person!
Many museums have programs especially for children, both younger and older that you can take advantage of from exploring the museum or certain forms of art to creating art. You can also find loads of art classes and programs to allow your kids to further explore and create art. Lots of these programs are free so check out local museums, libraries, and city or county organizations to find offerings near you.
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Music
Music is one of the cultural arts your kids probably have lots of exposure to already. You stream music on your devices and probably listen to the radio in your car. However, there are some other great ways to expose kids to other types of musical experiences. Obviously, your kids can learn to play an instrument themselves if that is something they are interested in and you want to support. Playing an instrument is not in the cards for everyone though and that is okay.
Besides playing music, you can expose your kids to music by seeing and listening to music performed live. This is a great way to instill a love for music in kids because music in all its forms is amazing to see live. The orchestra, a piano recital, a jazz concert, or any concert for that matter is a great way to explore live music. With kids of any age, you can ask how they enjoyed the music. With older kids, you can discuss how the music made them feel or what it made them think about, especially when it’s a more classical style of music.
If your child is interested in music but does not necessarily want to play an instrument, look into opportunities to join a chorus either through your church or through a club or elective course at their school. Singing is just as much a part of cultural arts as instrumentation.
READ MORE: 6 WAYS TO GET YOUR KIDS MORE INTO MUSIC
Theater
Kids of all ages can appreciate cultural arts through theater. Seeing a play or musical (which combines music and theater!) is exciting and can be made into a whole experience. Pick out and see a play that you know your kids will enjoy. If they would enjoy getting dressed up, consider putting on your fancy clothes and spending an afternoon or evening at the theater. Older kids might like a night out where you pair dinner with your night at the theater.
If you live in or near a big city, you likely have access to a great theater that gets some really amazing touring shows (Think Lion King, Wicked, and Cats for example). If you do not live somewhere with easy access to a theater like that there are tons of small local theaters and high school theater departments that put on really great shows that are worth checking out.
Theater is often a very easy tool to use for talking about cultural arts and society. Since there is a clear story being told, the meaning and reflection of society and the culture from which it came is not something that you have to interpret. That does not mean you have to have a big discussion or talk about the lesson that needs to be learned from every play or musical you watch, but it’s something you can discuss if you want or if it’s something you or your kids are especially interested in.
If performing is something your kids are interested in, explore acting and theater-related summer camps as well as opportunities to audition for roles in local theaters and in their school’s theater productions.
Dance
Another way to expose and instill a love of cultural arts in your kids is through dance. There are tons of styles of dance from ballet to tap, jazz, and modern dance – and plenty of opportunities to see dance being performed. Local ballet companies put on a number of performances every year, which usually includes The Nutcracker at Christmas time if you are looking for an opportunity to introduce your kids to ballet in an accessible way. You can read a story version of The Nutcracker and then go watch it being performed! If you don’t have access to a live performance, you can find versions that you can watch on television instead.
There are dance companies all over the country that put on performances. Some of these are private dance groups and others are through colleges and universities. Even high schools often have dance groups, especially arts-focused schools. Check out their websites and look for opportunities to see a performance every now and then. The same resources can be used if your kids are interested in taking a dance class or joining a dance group.
Cultural arts are awesome because they include so many forms of art. While they may love going to the art museum, they might have no interest in seeing a dance performance and that is perfectly fine. You might also have more opportunities to expose your kids to certain cultural arts over others and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Exposing them to different forms of art and experiences – however many different forms as you can – expands their horizons, taps into their creativity, and lets them explore the world.
WANT TO READ MORE?
Check out 8 Summer Fun Activities That Promote Continued Learning For Kids for more advice, tips, and tricks.
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