This post accompanies the talk "Using the Arts to Build Resilience in Teens" with Greenville Women Giving at the Children's Theater on March 15th, 2022.
Kids today have more challenges than ever but many are demonstrating amazing resilience with the help of the arts. Researchers found that the teens who were more hopeful were also more resilient.
In addition to hope, the arts help build resilience in teens in several ways.
1. First, the arts help kids to feel heard. Recently SmartARTS partnered with SCETV to broadcast a student poetry slam with teens at League Academy
Click here to watch the teen slam:
2. A second way that the arts teach teens to be more resilient is by helping them to take risks in a safe environment. Students at Greenville High School created conceptual art on the topic of the heart as part of a SmartARTS Unit.
3. The arts build community among peers, teachers, and family which is shown to boost resilience in teens. Recently the SmartARTS program worked with students at Tanglewood, a Title I Middle School, to create a mural inspired by the history of protest as part of their social studies class.
4. Finally, the arts helps teens process trauma. As students learn to express their emotions through the arts, they are better equipped to process trauma. Also the physicalness of the arts whether drumming, vocalizing, or creating visual arts helps students to express the trauma in a non-violent way.
The arts are an important way for teenagers and young adults to enhance their resilience, even during uncertain times, and recover more quickly when life brings them down.
