Dahl Arts Center Education Class Policies
and InformationFinancial aid may be available for
up to 50% of class fee for children in grades 1 - 8, through the Ardath
Rypkema Memorial Fund. Application is required. For more information call 394-4101, ext. 200.
- Classes have limited space and pre-registration is
necessary. Only children enrolled in the class may attend.
- Registration is not in effect until payment of class
fee has been received. Register in person or by phone with credit card
during regular Dahl hours. 25% of the class fee will be non-refundable
registration charge in the event of cancellation by the student. After the
first class, there will be no refund.
- A family membership to the Dahl Arts Center allows any
member of the immediate family to register for the member fee. An
individual membership allows only that individual to register for the
member fee. Family memberships to the Dahl are $50, individual memberships
are $35.
- Please drop off and pick up children in the classroom
on time.
- All supplies are provided unless otherwise noted.
- Students should wear clothes that can get messy.
- For additional information, please call at 394-4101.
Why Art Education?
What does art education do for the individual and for society?
Why do we teach art? How does art contribute to education at all
levels? There are many good answers to these questions, but three
stand out as crucial in today's social and economic climate. We
believe that art--and therefore art
education--means three things that everyone wants and needs.
Art Means Work
Beyond the qualities of creativity, self-expression, and
communication, art is a type of work. This is what art has been from the
beginning. This is what art is from childhood to old age. Through art, our
students learn the meaning of joy of work--work done to the best of one's
ability, for its own sake, for the satisfaction of a job well done. Their
fulfillment; work for social recognition; work for economic development. Work is
one of the noblest expressions of the human spirit, and art is the visible
evidence of work carried to the highest possible level. Today we hear much about
productivity and workmanship. Both of these ideals are strengthened each time we
commit ourselves to the endeavor of art. We are dedicated to the idea that art
is the best way for every young person to learn the value of work.
Art Means Language
Art is a language of visual images that everyone must
learn to read. In art classes, we make visual images, and we study images.
Increasingly, these images affect our needs, our daily behavior, our hopes, our
opinions, and our ultimate ideals. That is why the individual who cannot
understand or read images is incompletely educated. Complete literacy includes
the ability to understand, respond to, and talk about visual images. Therefore,
to carry out its total mission, art education stimulates language--spoken and
written--about visual images. Art teachers work continuously on the development
of critical skills. This is their way of encouraging linguistic skills. By
teaching pupils to describe, analyze, and interpret visual images, a student's
powers of verbal expression are enhanced. That is no educational frill.
Art Means Values
You cannot touch art without touching values; values
about home and family, work and play, the individual and society, nature and the
environment, war and peace, beauty and ugliness, violence and love. The great
art of the past and the present deals with these durable human concerns.
Art teachers do not indoctrinate. But when students study the art of many lands
and peoples, they are exposed to the expression of a wide range of human values
and concerns. Students are sensitized to the fact that values shape all human
efforts, and that visual images can affect their personal value choices. All of
them should be given the opportunity to see how art can express the highest
aspirations of the human spirit. From that foundation we believe students will
be in a better position to choose what is right and good.
-- National Art Education Association
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