Americans for the Arts

I was recently awarded the Champion of Arts Education Award by the Center for Arts Education in New York City. As the owner of a business that relies on artists, I am deeply committed to supporting arts education initiatives. The arts bring so much joy both to adults and children alike, but this rarely translates to encouragement to follow artistic passions.

This raises the question: Why do parents do so much to dissuade their children from pursuing an arts career? We celebrate our children’s work on the refrigerator until something happens that begins to make us shudder with fear. When our child comes to us and says, “I think I want to be an artist,” we try to avoid showing our panic right away—knowing that this might just be a passing notion for the day, as there were other dreamy ideas that proceeded this one including joining a rock band, a marine biologist, a park ranger. Then comes a day, as you begin to plan for your college visits, that your son or daughter says to you, “I want to go to an art school,” or they might couch it with, “Yes, I’d like a school that has an art program … and of course a strong biomedical program.” But you know that in the back of your head will be the likelihood that this ruse will cost tens and tens of thousands of dollars that may never get paid back!

So, after a year at school you get the call you’ve been anticipating, dreading, but it comes. Hearing the trembling in their voice: “Mom, Dad, I’ve decided to switch my major to fine art.” You listen, and yet you know you also have no choice. There is no conversion therapy group. You’ve already tried … the die is cast.

But, whether your child ends up in an art career or related art career, or does get that biomedical engineering degree, what you’ve supported through their school career is an incredible gift. At Golden Artists Colors, we support arts education because having a creative life is a something that will benefit and last an entire lifetime.

We work with people practicing an absolutely ancient art. They’ve said at various times, “Painting is dead.” This is such garbage. Painters paint, because they must. They have always had to. Yes, they are a compulsive lot, who are completely absorbed in the substance of paint. But every day they are able to reimagine the same substance into new and unanticipated forms like alchemists, mixing lead into gold and being enraptured by each discovery.

It is possible that a lifetime in the arts will not yield enormous dollar benefits; yet the opportunity to lead a rich, fulfilling life is of immeasurable value. As a company that works directly with painters, I get to live vicariously through their incredible talent and creativity. They have carried us—me—to places I would never had imagined before. They have allowed me the platform where we can continue to give back, and to be a voice to support the critical notion that art education is essential to a fulfilled life.