Tuesday, October 25, 2016

How the Arts Conquer Fear of Failure

"Great art comes from risk-taking, from being willing to fail." 

Part of any art curriculum involves a critique. Depending on the level, this comes from the teacher, the class participants, or both. We are all familiar with doing a project for a grade from the teacher. We expect this as part of the class process.

What is harder to take is the critique from fellow classmates. We aren't sure of their motivations and even if the teacher moderates the session, it is still hard to take. 

Once you get over the personal feelings of failure and go back to look at the piece objectively, then you can perhaps see the parts which could stand improvement.

It is learning to take failure in your stride and to make subsequent improvements that teach us the qualities of self-improvement and persistence.

For more on the power of the arts to teach us to move past failure, this article from Edutopia is worth the read:

Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts