UNESCO : International Arts Education Week

In accordance with the decision of the 36th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 2011, the 4th week of May has been proclaimed International Arts Education Week.
Thus, from 23 to 29 May, the International Arts Education Week aims to raise awareness of the importance of arts education and to strengthen its cooperation by promoting cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and social cohesion. Arts Education Week celebrates the arts in their diversity, and the arts educators who play a vital role in promoting and transforming humanity.

Creativity builds resilience

It is important to recall that in 2020, in her speech for International Arts Education Week, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay stated that: “Creativity builds the resilience we need in times of crisis. It must be nurtured from an early age to unleash the imagination, awaken curiosity and allow for an appreciation of the full richness and diversity of human talent. Education is the starting point.”

The role of 5 senses for kids Foundation in arts education

5 senses for kids Foundation supports any educational, cultural, social or scientific action that contributes to the development of children by promoting multi-sensoriality as a fundamental basis for their development and their openness to the world.

By taking care to avoid any over-stimulation, we effectively help the child by proposing sensory activities. These show them the richness and diversity of possible perceptions that each of their senses provides.

The contribution of art to children’s learning process is crucial. Music, rhythm, dance, painting, etc. and all forms of artistic expression and creation address children’s senses and enable them to structure their brain and better apprehend the reality of the world around them. In this way, external harmony not only has an impact on the children’s own inner harmony, but also contributes to enriching their memory and helps them to better understand the world and to represent it.

Art education is supported by the French state

In 2020, the President of the French Republic invited artists to intervene in schools. Neurosciences show the need to strengthen the role of art from a very young age and in schools, and Olivier Houdé, professor of psychology at the University of Paris, explains this in an article in “Le Monde.

The importance of art in the adaptation and survival of the human species

It is worth noting that the importance of art in the adaptation and survival of the human species was particularly highlighted by Ellen Dissanayake in her book Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why (1992), where she explains “that the aesthetic capacity is innate in every human being, and that art is as basic a need for our species as food, warmth, or shelter.”

In the preface to her book, she makes it explicit that “at first glance, the fact that the arts and related aesthetic attitudes vary so much from society to society seems to indicate that they are entirely learned or ‘cultural’ in origin rather than … biological or ‘natural’. An analogy can be made with language: learning to speak is a universal, innate predisposition for all children, even if each child learns the particular language of the people among whom he or she is raised. Similarly, art can be seen as a natural and general predisposition that manifests itself in culturally acquired specificities such as dances, songs, performances, visual representations and poetic discourses.”

Even more so during this UNESCO week of international celebration of arts education, 5 senses for kids Foundation encourages artists to perform for the very young, and encourages parents and educators to include the very young in new cultural and artistic endeavours.

Do not hesitate to share your ideas and proposals with us! And if you are a non-profit organisation, you can submit your project for the 5 senses for kids Foundation’s 2022 Educational Action Award.

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