Sri Aurobindo’s profound essay-series titled National Value of Art provides valuable perspective on why arts education is absolutely essential for the overall well-integrated development of a learner.
The mind is profoundly influenced by what it sees and, if the eye is trained from the days of childhood to the contemplation and understanding of beauty, harmony and just arrangement in line and colour, the tastes, habits and character will be insensibly trained to follow a similar law of beauty, harmony and just arrangement in the life of the adult man. . .
Between them music, art and poetry are a perfect education for the soul; they make and keep its movements purified, self-controlled, deep and harmonious. . . They are, when properly used, great educating, edifying and civilising forces.
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 1, pp. 447-448
Arts education encourages learners to develop a keener sense of observation of all that is around them and also within them. It helps improve perception by a through training and refinement of the sense-organs including mind. In time, this can lead to greater refinement and self-control of emotions and feelings, eventually helping them grow more reflective and introspective.
Arts education is essential if we want our youth to grow up to become sensitive and kind human beings. It can help them become conscious of the mystery and wonder that surrounds them in nature and in human-made world, and compassionate toward all life and nature.
Arts education also helps train the intellectual faculty in several important ways. It makes the mind quick to grasp at a glance and trains it to distinguish subtleties. It opens it to intuition and inspiration. By raising images in the mind which an art student has to understand not by analysis, but by self-identification with other minds, it helps build sympathetic insight.
An Art Educator Shares Her Perspective
This and many other insights were shared by our guest, Ms. Bindu Popli for this session of Insightful Conversations. An artist and art educator, she shares with us some of what she has learned through her long experience. She speaks of the role of arts in helping learners develop a greater sense of harmony and inner balance.
READ MORE HERE.
***
Watch the recording:
Renaissance is our monthly e-journal, highlighting numerous forms in which the eternal spirit of India is being reborn and renewed. It is a space featuring inspiring articles, essays, stories, videos, reflections and accounts of India and her creative genius manifesting in various domains – spiritual, artistic, literary, philosophic, scientific, aesthetic.
Check out the Renaissance journal HERE.
~ Report by Beloo Mehra