The founders of Culture Shapers discovered during their preliminary research that athletics and natural sciences receive far more attention and reward in school programs than do the social sciences and humanities. In recent years, schools have been cutting art programs at a disturbing rate.
In his recent book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Dr. Richard Florida, a professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, makes a compelling case for promoting arts in the schools. His research proves that investing in the arts and creativity is a much wiser public policy in terms of economic development and competitive advantage than traditional policies.
The Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, business, and philanthropic organizations, has published studies that point to a strong relationship between learning in the arts and fundamental cognitive skills used in mastering other subjects such as reading, writing and mathematics. The arts also nurture social interaction skills like empathy, collaboration and tolerance for others.
The long range mission is to touch as many high school students as we can in the visual arts including painting, drawing, photography, mixed media and extend into the digital age through film and other areas. Additionally, we have begun to expand into the performing arts as well.
We want to encourage and direct our youth in positive ways to use their God-given talents for good and not evil, for growth not destruction, and for positively shaping our and their future – not degrading it. There is a wealth of talent in our “right-brain” thinkers. And, we hope to raise millions of dollars to support and encourage them for their future and ours as well.
