Art has its place in child development

By Rosemarie F. Oei

UBUD, Bali (JP): "Art is a mirror of mind and emotions, a space for completing the need of matters of inner and outer world," S. Fitzgerald wrote in 1991's Education and the Australian Mind.

"In all societies, the arts provide us with important ways of representing and expressing ideas, values, emotions and religious beliefs, as well as ways of recognizing, valuing and, at times challenging traditions."

This quotation was cited at the opening of a recent seminar, My Place, to discuss children's education in arts and its developments at Museum Puri Lukisan Ubud.

The seminar was held by the museum in cooperation with the University of Melbourne. They concurrently presented a workshop for children, in which children were asked to draw the most beautiful place in their life. The paintings would be exchanged with Australian children's works.

The workshop, held in an exhibition building, was attended by 110 children between 5 and 12 years old from different schools in Ubud and Denpasar.

The seminar was held in the garden to discuss children's arts and education on a deeper level. The speakers included Australian Margaret Stephens, who has been researching children's education in Bali since 1995, Balinese psychiatrist Prof. Ni Luh Ketut Suryani, Balinese artist I Dewa Nyoman Batuan and Ni Made Rinu, arts education lecturer at the University of Udayana, Denpasar.

The event drew 63 participants from the education and arts worlds.

During the seminar it was clear that Australian education faces the same problems as Indonesian education with the time constraints, lack of student interest in arts and material limitation.

Educating children about arts is not always easy, especially when today's children are used to electronic entertainment, such as video games and television. This has resulted in a way of communication which is difficult for teachers to handle.

How can we pass on the values and appreciation for arts to children?

The solution depends on the skill of the teacher. The arts are obviously not mathematics. At every level of arts, we are unable to judge right or wrong.

Margaret suggested that parents and teachers try to invite the children to use examples from their daily life and experiences which are interesting enough to talk about.

Exhibit

"Ask the children to draw something they like from their experiences and environment and give them the freedom to create," she added.

Although the children get the freedom to create, Margaret recommended that adults guide them in the technique and skills needed to get a good result.

It is also important to exhibit the children's artwork regularly and to invite other children and their parents. "This is to create self-confidence in the children and at the same time to develop other children's creativity," she said.

From a psychiatrist's point of view, Suryani said parenthood could have a great influence on the child's development of expression through paintings.

Parenthood in Australia and Indonesia differs. An Australian parent gives the child more independence, logical understanding and the chance to express their emotions in an individual way.

On the other hand, Balinese parents are more likely to protect their children. Balinese children have to suppress their emotions and through intuition and observation understand others.

Different styles of parenthood apparently result in the different artwork from the children, according to Suryani.

An important question raised during the seminar was the influence of the adults' way of painting on the child's creativity. As we have to guide children in their freedom to create, how can we avoid these influences?

Ni Made Rinu believes that the environment will influence the children, but experience shows that children's interest in painting will develop. They will express their own mind and feelings about reality in the paintings in a different way from adults, who have more awareness of the community's values and care more about the environment.

As an artist, I Dewa Nyoman Batuan finds traditional art to be a part of his daily life. Art is related to literature and this results in a personal relationship between an artist and different elements in his life such as religion, place, time and situation.

Art is a mirror of people's minds and a medium to express feelings. It also completes the need of matters of the inner and outer world. According to I Dewa Nyoman Batuan, art will not have any meaning if there is no philosophy about art. The new generation has to have the guts to change without letting the old prints from the past die and vanish.

The writer is curator of Museum Puri Lukisan Ubud