Connecting to Nature through Art

Originally appears in the Summer 2010 issue

Despite evidence that outside activities improve the health, focus, productivity, creativity and sense of well-being of children, most spend too many hours indoors with little exposure to sunlight and nature.  Many children today can readily identify corporate brand names while barely recognizing the animals and plant life in their local region. If we expect this generation of children to serve as responsible eco-literate stewards of the environment, they are going to need meaningful early connections to nature.

Art activities serve as affective and effective tools to further enrich, enhance and enlighten the nature experience for students. Art creation itself allows for higher-level cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domain attainments from Blooms taxonomy of learning.  The study of nature through art allows the “student-artist” to experience, observe, value, analyze, synthesize and express his/her understanding of, and relationship to, nature and the environment.  The examination of nature through artistic processes has been a constant in the development of artists and scientists throughout culture and history.