Page 16 - May-June-July Life In Naples Magazine

NAPLES ART ASSOCIATION

WHAT IF? PHOTO CREDIT: PITTNAM WILKEY

What if the Wright brothers never imagined Regardless of how each of us feels about the arts, as a society we are currently
flight? What if Edison hadn’t discovered the deemphasizing arts and humanities in our schools. That puts more of the
light bulb? What if our ability to create was responsibility for cultivating creativity and innovation on our families, extra-
stifled? America has been a leader in innovation curricular programs and non-profit educational organizations such as The Naples
since the beginning, American ingenuity and Art Association.
entrepreneurship are the reason we are a world
economic leader. Imagination is what built our DISCOVER ART - JUST DON’T CALL IT SUMMER CAMP
country. Innovation drives our industries and
creativity gives us the edge needed to solve world One program geared toward helping children understand the impact of art on
problems. When our government officials want to STEM is ARTScool. Students learn how art is integrated into learning science,
revamp the educational system to expand STEM technology, math, history, and language. ARTScool is not a summer camp. Rather,
courses (science, technology, engineering and ARTScool is a popular summer arts education program serving nearly 1,000 students
math) and de-emphasize the arts and humanities, aged 5 to 14 each year.The difference between ARTScool and any other art-centered
it seems to be for good reason. Today, more jobs summer camp is that ARTScool allows students to choose from fantastic opportunities
rely on heavily specialized technical skillsets
and it seems that the domestic pool of capable
applicants might be too small. Moreover, the US
consistently falls below the leadership in STEM
based standardized testing. However, given the
critical importance of humanities to developing
creative problem-solving and deep thinking
skills, deemphasizing the humanities may have
dire consequences when it comes to creating the
type of innovative thinkers that have kept the US
ahead of the pack economically, technologically
and politically.

It is through arts and humanities that we learn
about ourselves, we develop a better understanding
of how people and societies work and what they
need and want. The arts and humanities power
culture. They are the heart and soul of a person
and STEM is the body. Working together, they
create a whole, innovative, and creative human
being that can apply critical thinking skills needed
to succeed in our ever changing world. If our goals
for effective education are limited to developing
technical skills and not creative skills, we risk
developing a future workforce that is inflexible or
unable to think deeply and expansively about the
task at hand.We risk creating a workforce that feels
more comfortable repeating the same inefficient
strategies than developing new methods and
technologies that revolutionize processes.

As a community art center, The Naples Art
Association bears witness to the impact the arts
make in our day to day life, from imagining how
shapes form structures, discovering how paints,
canvas and music can help foster healthy living,
to creating visual images that convey our past and
present history and culture for future generations.

16 Life in Naples | May • June • July 2015