by Don Rainwater

Created on: April 30, 2008   Last Updated: May 08, 2008

From cave paintings to the Louvre to Greenwich Village and all around the world in every era art has been vital to man's culture. Art is part of our daily lives in fashion, car design, movies, music, photography, and web design. From the design on our curtains to the cover art on CD's we all enjoy the benefits of art. Art programs and art schools promote what is best in man almost in a spiritual nature. Thomas Merton in The Seven Story Mountain writes about the spirituality of art and states that artistic endeavor is as close to doing something spiritual as man can get without participating in religion.

People who have artistic talent whether in drawing and, sculpting, singing and dancing, as a musician, composing music, graphic design, interior design, theater arts, or any other artistic pursuit are an important part of what makes human society a society. Their contributions enrich our lives by entertaining, making us think, and making our lives fuller. They display and examine our emotions for us in forms that help us to consider what life means.

Scottsdale's Artist School teaches international artists and aspiring artist the fundamentals of classical traditional art and has been teaching for twenty-five years. Its workshops teach oil painting, watercolor, pastel, sculpture, and drawing at all levels. It's situated in the Arts District of Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Taos School of Art in Taos, New Mexico offers classes in creativity, painting, drawing, native arts, and equine arts. Special Plein Air painting classes in the tradition of Georgia O'Keefe are offered. This school has been featured in The New Yorker.

The San Antonio Southwest School of Arts and Crafts is a professional school for children and adults. It was founded in 1969. Its historic location is on the River Walk. About twenty-four children and adults are taught each year. The instructional studios are well equipped. They teach classes in ceramics, drawing and painting, fibers and weaving, metalsmithing, paper and book arts, photography and printmaking, glass blowing, glass etching and stained glass, mosaic, welding, and landscape design.

The School of Music of Texas State University in San Marcos a great musical environment with band camp, string camp, jazz camp, and choral camp. U.S. News & World Report recognizes this school as one of the best colleges in America in 2008. They offer degrees in composition, music performance, jazz studios, sound recording technology, and music teacher preparation.

The Arts Institutes School has campuses in Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin and Houston, Texas. It offers courses in culinary arts, design which has classes in game and animation, graphic design, interior design, autocad, visual communications and more. They also offer classes in fashion and media arts.

Southwestern University is one of the few schools that have a separate school of fine arts in an undergraduate liberal arts university. The Sarofim School of Fine Arts programs lead to a B.A. in art, music, and theater and the BFA in theater and the Bachelor in Music. They prepare students for teaching, working in the arts or graduate school.

With such great schools and such a variety of artistic pursuits offered anyone wishing to continue or start their schooling in the arts and that would like to enjoy the southwestern culture while going to school should inquire further into one of these fine programs. You owe it to yourself and the world to keep the torch of the arts burning.

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