Painting Pandas Provides More than Art Skills
The world is a daunting place and for elementary-aged kids, it can be especially intimidating. The struggle with stability, love, confidence, security, and having outlets for creativity and emotions is real. Little ones are no different than the rest of us, as we all need what Psychiatrist William Glaser calls the five basic needs of humanity: survival, freedom, fun, power, and love. We all need them and we all want them. Enter Painting Pandas, as our classes provide pieces of each!
When asked, most people will choose love and belonging as their most important needs and through Painting Pandas classes, kids in grades K-5 find both. They discover a feeling of connection and acceptance by their fellow classmates and the love expressed for their art comes from not only classmates but our Painting Panda instructor and even themselves. All of this is as much a goal for us as is art and art making.
“Feeling a part of a group with common interests is not only instrumental to self-confidence and expression, it’s a vital part of our mission,” says Painting Pandas Executive Director and Founder Jill Turner. “We get as much joy out of seeing friendships develop as we do art being created.”
By offering motivation and appreciation, Painting Pandas is doing our part to help youth avoid feeling insecure and making wrong choices. Glasser suggests that people who don’t have their needs met and feel disconnected are the sources of almost all human problems. People who feel connected and valued tend to offer caring habits and behaviors, those who don’t often choose actions such as crime, violence, addiction, procrastination, and even problems connected to depression and mental illness.
Painting Panda classes are chalk full of caring habits that inspire students including encouragement, listening, support, trust, acceptance, respect, and negotiation…all while offering creativity and fun. These approaches have proven to be effective in helping students seek success and achieve their true potential.
Since our creation in 2020, Painting Pandas has served more than 500 students with our free art kits and art instruction. We have heard from many of them and their family members on how much they love our classes and how making art has enhanced their lives.
“This class is amazing,” wrote one parent. “The class is so engaging and interactive and my son always looks forward to it. I am blown away at how much he’s learned. It’s the best class he’s ever been to!”
Engaging and interactive; two descriptions of things that make someone feel wanted and needed. They are also integral elements in our art instruction, which gives students the freedom to dream and create.
“Tuesday has become my son’s favorite night of the week. He absolutely loves the class and is often working on his project for at least an additional 30 minutes because he’s so into it,” wrote another parent.
It’s been proven time and time again that art and creativity are also vital components to one’s feelings of acceptance and empowerment. Studies have found that art classes teach drawing, coloring, painting, sculpting and the like, but also problem solving, patience, perseverance, focus, the value of hard work, believing in oneself, and focus. Art education also teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use that visual information to make good decisions and choices using critical thinking skills developed by simply choosing a certain color, texture, or format. On top of all that, art is FUN! All of these are vital life skills that hopefully result in feeling happy and living a fulfilled life. They are also skills Painting Pandas encourages and provides to all our students; skills we are proud and humbled to provide according to Turner.
“By simply offering students the opportunity to draw and create, we are also giving them the ability to feel confident and capable. If we can do all of these even on the smallest level, we have done our job.”
