Positive Art News Stories For The Week

Every day we’re bombarded with negative news, however, we may also find an abundance of positive art news if we know where to look – like right here! I’d like to share uplifting news stories I discovered including one about reducing stress with coloring.

Coloring Reduces Stress

Elena Santos wrote an article on Huffington Post that emphasizes coloring is a great way to lower our stress levels. The reason is when we are involved in this type of activity we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres. She quotes psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala:  “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”

You may also want to read: Art Improves Brain Function.

Art+Feminism’s Worldwide Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Pages for female artists on Wikipedia have been insufficient to say the least. On Saturday, March 7, more than 200 people were busy at work at the Museum of Modern Art’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, in New York, NY, united in the goal of creating these resources.  The first such event held in 2014 attracted 600 volunteers, however, this year drew 1,300 participants. Furthermore, instead of 30 separate events, there were 70 this year, in 17 countries on 4 continents. Most importantly, 334 new articles were created globally compared to 101 at last year’s event.

“A Dying Wish to See Rembrandt Paintings, Fulfilled”

In this article by Allison Meier published on the hyperallergic website: “After hours this week at the Rijksmuseum’s Late Rembrandt exhibition, which focuses on the artist’s final years, three terminally ill patients viewed the paintings in solitude. The visit was a dying wish fulfilled by Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland, a Dutch organization of over 200 medical volunteers. Started in 2007, the group provides mobility with its fleet of ambulances for people who have lost it, offering them a glimpse of a favorite museum one last time, or just a return trip home, as with one man who visited his garden and saw his family gathered in his house a last time.”

More Money Spent on Arts Education

Doug Israel, Director of Research and Policy for The Center for Arts Education, reported “After years of budget cuts, and a narrowing of curriculum at public schools across the country, urban school districts, such as New York and Chicago, are taking bold steps to expand the school day curriculum and once again invest in arts education.” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council agreed “to a four-year $92 million investment to improve and expand arts education citywide. The initiative has already led to the hiring of arts teachers in 84 city schools that were underserved in the arts.”

Art Treatment in Hospitals

Writer Mary Plummer announced on the Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network, “At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, patients receiving art, music or dance therapy have more than tripled since 2010. Nearly 10,000 patients received such treatment in 2014, according to the hospital.” Plummer points out that doctors and nurses at the hospital can now prescribe art therapy for their patients the same way they might prescribe medications.