Art Supplies
As an artist, I am aware of the importance of having the best art supplies, the right tools and the finest resources for all of my artistic needs at the risk of ruining a could-have-been great project. At school, we are provided with all of the necessary supplies and all of the things that we could possibly be in want for. I am able to achieve all of my artistic goals. After I have painted a watercolor, for example, my teacher supplies me with any king of foam board necessary to mat my final work. Thus, I am able to achieve my fullest potential as an artist.
Unfortunately, not everybody has access to such a great wealth of supplies. There are children in inner city school districts that got to schools that simply do not have the funding to provide their students with good enough nor enough artistic supplies. They may be aspiring artists, but their dreams are cut short since they do not have the resources their talent requires.
I am certain that there are children in these poorer school districts that have as much if not more talent than the best artist at our school. Their art may also have more of a story to share with the onlooker, something with a deeper meaning even. Their art could possibly portray their lives and what it is like to be in such a crummy situation as they may be in. For example, if one artistically talented child who did not have the resources available to him lived in a home where his parents abused him, his artwork may be therapeutic to him and also have a deeper meaning, a hidden message even, depicted in the paint.
These reasons and many more are why there are programs out there that take donated art supplies and distribute them to schools where the arts department is lacking. These organizations will take new or lightly used paintbrushes, crayons, canvas, matting board, colored pencils, pastels, and many, many other items and give them to the schools and the children that need those supplies the most. When you donate to such a cause, you get that happy, warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart that tells you that you've done something good for someone else, that you may have just enabled a child to pursue their dream. What could be better than that?
In school, we run canned food drives, and coat drives, and pennies-for-patients fundraisers, but I wish that we also had the capacity to start a donation for art supplies too. Since I go to a fairly well off school district, I'm sure that it wouldn't be a problem to get one up and going. Our arts department could sponsor it and we could get other schools that are nearby to join in as well.