This year, two well-known art education institutions that have made their mark in society when it comes to offering quality art education are participating in the National Art Fair 2023. The base of an artist is his or her own talent, because not everyone possesses those qualities. But it is essential, as with any creative profession, whether it is a singer, painter or actor, that the talent must be developed. It is known that experienced artists spend hours every day working on their art. Every day they are creating, refining, inventing, looking for inspiration to ultimately arrive at the creation of a final product.
For any artist, or aspiring young person, good training is essential, to learn the basic technical skills of art making as they build further on this foundation. Learning the correct anatomical proportions, perspective, mixing colors, composition, the philosophical process to arrive at a subject, knowledge of materials and many more elements, are needed to become a fully-fledged artist and is a long process. Nola Hatterman Art Academy (NHAA) and G-Artblok are some of the art institutes where young aspiring creatives can express themselves under expert guidance. Four students from NHAA are participating in the exhibition and six students from G-Artblok.
Sunil Puljhun, coordinator of the NHAA, states that when he was an art student himself, he benefited greatly from the presence of an art institute, namely the NHAA, which helped shape him into the artist he is today. “My education, now almost 30 years ago, has broadened my vision of life. I have learned to look at life and society in a different way. It has changed and deepened my world view but also my imagination. I have learned to think deeply about life’s issues and can now even approach art from a philosophical point of view.”
According to George Struikelblok, founder of G-Artblok, it is also the National Art Fair that has pushed him to emerge more strongly with his works. “As a student I was already allowed to participate and people were able to get to know my person and my works. Art education has opened up a world for me to learn from other artists. Learning to look at what excites them, how they think, what their inspiration is. For me the Art Fair is also a great source where you can ask all kinds of questions to artists who have been in the profession for a long time.” George states that he had a ‘greedy’ attitude towards acquiring knowledge and he took every opportunity to learn from art masters.
Sunil believes that art and cultural education is extremely important for young people. “It teaches them to value what is theirs, their own frame of reference, their culture and what they create.” He believes that only deep knowledge of one’s own culture can generate appreciation and respect for the other’s culture. Art and culture education also make young people aware of the society in which they live. “For example, you will have a drawing competition with social themes such as ‘Clean Suriname’, ‘Stop bullying’, then they will learn about issues that exist in society. But you also teach them to look at their own emotions as they develop their own creativity, which trickles down to the rest of their lives. We know that all the children we teach will not become great artists, but they will use that creativity in their future careers, wherever they end up.”
George states that art and culture education stimulate young people to develop a broader perspective of society. “It is important for young people that their creativity, their vision and their imagination are stimulated, so that they can think creatively and creatively problem-solve in their future lives.”
There are numerous positive effects of art and culture education. “Children learn to think more broadly. They can talk more easily about their feelings, but also about what is going on in society. Their vision is broadened and goes beyond just what they learn at school. I encourage my students to do research, read a lot and not just stick to what I teach them,” says George.
For Sunil it is that young people get to learn and respect about each other’s culture. At his last exhibition he discovered that one of his students, a maroon lady, had also taken kathak lessons; a subject he painted about. “For me, that is the power of art and cultural education, it connects us as people. It gives us food for thought, things to talk about and inspiration to keep creating.”
