“Schoolchild’s soul flight”

In the frames of our project I’ve organized an exhibition of artworks by Tallinn school students 06.05.2014 – 30.05.2014

              “Schoolchild’s soul flight”

that was aimed at school students, children and young people who had made paintings and drawings.

I represented children from Tallinn school nr. 53 and my art studio „Fantaasia“.

There are 52 students from Tallinn schools participating in the exhibition and nearly 90 children’s works are exposed. The exhibition is dedicated to school children and their spiritual life. The International project is also aimed at teachers, who work with children aged 5-18 years old.

Why then „Schoolchild’s spiritual life“? How much has been said about it at all? What’s really going on in a child’s head and soul? And how to help and support a child’s spiritual life? In the modern world a child comes across a wild range of negative factors: a large amount of unnecessary data, computer games, a difficult economic situation. As a result, relationship between adult and child is complicated, child becomes indifferent and aggressive. What to do? Art therapy is one of the most effective ways to establish contact with a child. Painting and drawing helps to dissipate the inner tension, to find and eliminate the source of a problem. All of this helps a child to develop independence and to boost self expression, helps to built healthy personality. Isn’t this what a modern society dreams of?

The main purpose of the exhibition was creating interest towards art therapy in the field of school education. For my part, I’ve investigated the impact of art on child’s development and behavior correction. Children from the age of 5 years old have made tens of works in the art studio „Fantaasia“, favourite themes and techniques were discovered. As a foreign language teacher I’ve used the elements of art therapy in the teaching of foreign language. The use of those elements appears to stimulate and facilitate the foreign language acquisition, develops independence and self-confidence.

The world changes – so do children, teaching methods are also changing.

The aim of exhibition and my work wasn’t intended to develop specific methodology (there are universities for this purpose), but the aim was to generalize and exchange teachers’ experience and to give an overview of art’s positive impact on children.

Project „ART THERAPY – A UNIQUE RESOURCE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT“ representative in Estonia, teacher Jekaterina Janutenene.