In the inaugural article of this series, I closed by saying art is not nonsense. It really is not. Now I must convince you, if you are not already in my camp, of precisely this.
As a former secondary school teacher, I can recall instances of very talented students saying to me, “Ms. I can’t do art anymore; my parents think it’s nonsense and it has no future”. Each time, although I could see a bright and astute budding artist, the parental intervention was bound to be made to steer the child towards medicine or engineering and my heart would sink. But I realised the dilemma of art in Guyana. Art is not understood. And, not surprisingly—as it appears it is given little to no emphasis in the formative years. I, for one, have no recall of doing any art in primary school while I have vivid memories of learning to write, reciting multiplication tables, and learning about foods. But I am, as the saying goes, up there in age.
