As an artist, I am aware of the importance of having the best art supplies, the right tools and the finest resources for all of my artistic needs at the risk of ruining a could-have-been great project. At school, I am provided with all of the necessary supplies and all of the things that I could possibly be in want of. I am able to achieve anything I want. After I have painted a watercolor, for example, my teacher supplies me with any king of foam board necessary to mat my final work. Thus, I am able to achieve my fullest potential as an artist.
Unfortunately, not everybody has access to all of the paint and board and canvas that I am. There are children in inner city school districts that go to schools that simply do not have the funding to provide their students with good enough nor enough artistic supplies. They may be aspiring artists, but their dreams are many times not reached because of the lack of the resources their talent requires. I am lucky to be in such a school district where the community is supportive of the arts and so the funding of our arts department is thriving. It is too bad that not every school does.
I am certain that there are children in these poorer school districts that have as much if not more talent than the best artist at our school. Their art may also have more of a story to share with the onlooker, something with a deeper meaning even. Their art could possibly depict their lives and the poor lives they lead. For example, if one artistically talented child who did not have the resources available to him lived in a home where his parents abused him, his artwork may be therapeutic and help him deal with his issues.
These reasons and many more are why there are programs out there that take donated art supplies and give them to these lacking schools. These organizations will take new or lightly used paintbrushes, crayons, canvas, matting board, colored pencils, pastels, and many, many other items and provide them for the students who want them. When you donate to such a cause, you get that happy, warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart that tells you that you’ve done something good for someone else, that you may have just enabled a child to pursue their dream. What could possibly be any greater than that?
In school, we run canned food drives, and coat drives, and pennies-for-patients fundraisers, but I think that an art supplies drive would be awesome. Since I go to a fairly well off school district, I’m sure that it be simple to start one. Our arts department could sponsor it and there is always the possibility that other schools will join in as well.
