This is a slight misnomer as this fabulous creative time lasts for three weeks.
Three weeks of paint, creativity, and glitter.
Its an initiative created by ‘Engage; the National Association for Gallery Education’ whose purpose is to bring people and Art together. Engages Mission Statement includes ‘Through advocacy, research, and training we help ensure the quality, inclusivity, and relevance of engagement and participation opportunities across the UK’ which is an excellent aim.
The idea is for children and young people to tap into their creative side, to try arts and crafts that they might not have tried before and to have fun. Getting messy and creating box models of dinosaurs, or using oil paints for the first time, or perhaps learning to knit, who knows what creative spark could be ignited in these three weeks.
Arts and crafts are great for kids of all ages and developmental stages
. They give children a sense of achievement and allows them to take pride in their work which helps to build confidence.
With Arts and Crafts, you can make mistakes, but you turn those mistakes into something even better. This in turn can teach children that mistakes are not the end of the world.
The school curriculum is very rigid for some children, but Arts and Crafts are universal. Arts and crafts support a different skill set, for example hand eye co-ordination, fine motor skills, even problem solving and working together as a team. All of these go towards improving confidence.
Just watching children smiling with joy at what they have created is also an amazing lift for parents and carers. Ok, so you may run out of room on the fridge over the next few weeks, and you may be hoovering glitter up for weeks to come, but aren’t you a little bit jealous that you can sit and spend hours just painting whatever you like, or learning a new craft, just because its good for you?
Perhaps we need an Adults Art Week, compulsory enjoyment, and messiness, it may not improve fine motor skills, but it may spread a little happiness all around.
