How Do the 21st Century Citizens See the World?

Why is art even important if you’re not planning on pursuing it in college? If you’ve ever found yourself wondering that, don’t be embarrassed. You’re not alone. For some of us, when we were growing up the subject in school that our parents placed the least importance on was the arts. But not anymore.According to Seneca Academy, “Art instruction helps children with the development of motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision-making, risk-taking, and inventiveness. Visual arts teach learners about color, layout, perspective, and balance: all techniques that are necessary in presentations (visual, digital) of academic work.” Through art, students learn the essential skills in life that will help them become more well-rounded individuals.

AISB Hope International is a school whose mission is to turn out not only academically excellent students but also well-rounded members of society. AISB Hope places equal importance on students’ artistic explorations as it does on academics.

“Fine motor skills are one of the important topics for Pre-K to Lower Elementary parents. Coloring, painting, cutting, pasting, and using play dough to manipulate the forming can significantly develop younger students’ fine motor skills and boost their neural development,” explains Ms. JooYeong Choe, K5 to Grade 5 teacher at AISB Hope. She goes on to explain that our children live in a world that’s changing faster than the one we grew up in. In order to support our kids to become successful 21st-century citizens, ”Art helps students think creatively. It is the best tool to deliver students’ creative imaginations. Arts (and design) and crafts activities support them to think more critically and help them to build solid problem-solving skills without fearing to try. Finally, art is the best setting for young kids to learn to collaborate with peers and develop cultural awareness in communication.”

The latest exhibition at Oasis International Hospital featuring the works of AISB students from various grades will be on display until Sunday (Apr 16).

“I am excited to show off my students’ artwork. They are an amazing group of students to teach and they all have a teachable spirit which makes my job easy. They are very talented and desire to do their best in each piece of artwork they create. I am proud of all my students who have diverse personalities and are willing to try a new medium even if they are uncomfortable with it,” says Mrs. Tammy Sapp, an art teacher at AISB Hope who works with students in both middle and high school.

The exhibition is a special opportunity that showcases the work AISB Hope’s students have put into their pieces. One of the works is by Grade 12 student Meredith Tung, who hopes to major in psychology in college. “Our project was to create a piece related to emotion. This was my first time doing an abstract piece, and it was interesting to learn the amount of thought that goes into creating a seemingly unstructured piece,” says Tung. “A cityscape is often busy early in the morning: people rushing to work and traffic jamming roads. The preface to a chaotic morning is the short-lived moment of a beautiful dawn. In a similar manner, this painting portrays a brief moment of peace and beauty before impending doom. Just like how graduating high school is fun, but it also sets you up for a lifetime of unknowns.”

Fellow senior Jadon Eplin has been at AISB-Hope for almost five year now hopes to pursue history or philosophy in college. “I really enjoy the serenity and peacefulness I feel when I’m drawing a piece I am very motivated in and the sense of accomplishment once I’ve completed a quality drawing.”

For this exhibition, he’s chosen to showcase man’s best friend – his dog. “I wanted to choose an animal of mine to draw, as earlier this year while online I drew my cat. Knowing I could do better, I wanted to draw an animal again, so I chose one of my mom’s dogs.” says Eplin. “I chose this [dog]in particular because he had shades of black that where easier to draw and I overall had a lot of fun drawing him. The end result is not lackluster for me.”

For those who can make it, be sure to check out the exhibition at Oasis International Hospital. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the student works being featured.