Six Reasons to Enjoy Taking an Art Class
- Kaiya Olsen
- Nov 6, 2019
- 3 min read
We are all painfully familiar with the distribution requirements necessary to get our liberal arts degrees here at Adrian. The idea of adding arts, humanities, philosophy/religion, social science, natural science, and non-western courses to our already busy schedules sounds like a nightmare. Trust me, I know what you’re thinking: I’m a biology major I can’t do art, and why would I ever even need art experience? But I am here to tell you that taking an art class can be beneficial, and even enjoyable. In fact, I have scoured the internet, my brain, and my friends’ brains to come up with six reasons taking an art class can be beneficial to you.
1. It’s a nice (sometimes a 2.5 hour) break in your day
Yes I know, when scheduling your classes you’re already stressed out enough as it is to get everything to fit, adding a (possibly) two hour twenty minute class into the mix twice a week doesn’t help. I thought the same thing when I signed up for drawing my freshman year. But honestly, it’s really nice to just be able to sit and work on one project for an entire class, and the time goes by a lot faster than in other classes. Sometimes my 50-minute classes felt like they lasted longer than my art classes.
2. You gain creative skills
Developing creativity is one of the Ribbons of Excellence for a reason, and believe it or not, employers like when you can be open to doing more than one thing. In fact, while in an interview I can almost guarantee from my experience someone will ask you some sort of question involving creativity in the workplace. Overall, taking an art or theater class can help you expand your creativity and problem solving skills.
3. Good for your mental health
I’m not going to pretend that art classes are easy, with little to no homework or effort involved, but it’s a different kind of work that has actually been proven to reduce stress. Art therapy is even used to help people understand their emotions and lower anxiety. You don’t even have to be “good” at art to get the benefits. It has even been found that just 45 minutes of creativity can lower stress levels, so think about how low your stress levels will be after two hours and twenty minutes! My advice is to take something you might be interested in! It can make the work you do even more enjoyable if you can connect to it somehow.
4. Builds confidence
With any art class, whether it’s acting, drawing, or interior design, you have to put yourself out there, and that can be scary at first. But as you act out more scenes, or have more art critiques as a class, you grow more comfortable with displaying your art in front of others. No matter what kind of art you are producing, there is a part of you and your personality in it.
5. Strengthen your grades in other classes
When taking an art class, you are stimulating a part of the brain that is not accustomed to being used. By creating projects, and exercising the transcranial motor cortex of your brain, you are strengthening your ability to provide insight, emotional productivity, and cognition improvement and awareness. So basically by taking an art class, you’re making yourself smarter and giving yourself the ability to think differently.
6. It’s fun
Let’s face it, some of the course curriculum we have to take is less than ideal, but we have to get it done for our majors. Art is a way to spend time being creative, and learning about something that you probably wouldn’t get to if you didn’t get a liberal arts education. You also just get to express yourself freely throughout the different projects, and create whatever you’re feeling.
-Kaiya Olsen
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