It’s important to foster love for arts in kids

(The following Trumpeter column originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on March 26, 2008.)

By Tia Pearse, HFA Director

The theatre became a passion for me at a very young age. By the age of 10 I was deeply engrossed with dance classes, singing lessons, rehearsals and performance opportunities.

Theatre moved me whether I was on stage or in the audience. Now that I am older, it still moves me, but so do many more forms of artistic expression – poetry and creative writing, visual art, music. I can always find something that stirs some emotion, memory, or sensation.

BOARD MEMBER: Tia Pearse is an HFA director, among many other things. Some people will know her as an active part of the Camp Tawingo community; others may have seen her on stage, backstage or helping with outdoor projects such as Arts Splash.

I have come to learn just how important it is to have access to such forms of self-expression. Recently my family and I volunteered at a residential camp for children in South Africa who had been orphaned through HIV/AIDS. Most of the girls (ages 12-16) who attended the camp live in severe poverty. Few of them will finish high school, many already work part-time jobs to help out the families that have taken them in. Some have lived through horrors that we only see in movies or read about in books. Yet these girls are joyful. They sing every day, often and loudly. When they sing, they dance. And when they sing and dance it is a celebration of life, of friendship, of faith, and of hope.

I felt very fortunate to be in charge of teaching theatre arts to the campers. Every day the girls were exposed to dance, drama, drumming, and poetry. I was overwhelmed by their eagerness to learn and participate. They begged to go first, they hated the moment the class ended. They jumped at every chance to try something new. They were absolutely hungry for opportunities to express themselves artistically.

The staff in charge of the arts and crafts department at the camp found the exact same thing. The campers relished every chance to paint, draw, sketch, artistically express their emotions, experiences, life circumstances.

I had taken for granted the wonderful experiences I had in the theatre until I spent time with children who don’t even know that formal dance classes exist. They sing and dance, paint and draw, write poetry and stories, without any formal training or experience.

How fortunate I felt to come home to Huntsville and know that the children of our community have access to so many of the arts. The Kaleidoscope program is running again this year and the artists and the students will be performing on April 1 at the Algonquin Theatre.

Many of our students were able to see authentic modern dance at its best by attending performances by the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. The company offered workshops for the local schools — another wonderful chance to give our kids an opportunity for self-expression.

Slam Poetry will be back again this spring. Performance poetry is dynamic and exciting and this is a priceless opportunity for the young writers in our midst. Talented young classical musicians will be here to perform on May 4, one of whom is our own scholarship winner, Ashley Hill. The local high schools will be creating short movies for a local film festival and our younger students will be participating in a battle of the books.

I am so proud to be involved with the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. I am pleased that our mandate is not only to bring talented and relevant artists to our community, but to foster a love for the arts in the children of our community by giving them ample opportunity to create, share, and express themselves.

I urge everyone to take advantage of these opportunities. Let’s encourage children to make art through self-expression. Who knows what beauty they will create.

N.B. Please don’t forget to fill out the festival survey to help us determine our future programming. Log on to huntsvillefestival.on.ca/survey/ and you may win free theatre tickets.