Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein was right about that.

In 2018, when we built the Universal Promise Academic Centre at Vusumzi Primary School, we all agreed that we must nurture the left brain, the right brain, and the whole brain. So including an art studio in the mix was a no-brainer. In 2022, when the principal at St. Ignatius Primary School asked for an art studio at her school, we jumped at the chance.

We have always been motivated by the fact that “good enough is not good enough,” so we went all out, and the children took to it all as we had hoped. From the start, they dug right in and were grateful for juggling traditional, teacher-centered classroom dynamics with a literal space and a mind space that allowed each to be an individual.

We have brought 2-D sketch artists, 3-D artists, and photographers to work with the children, and the Library Coordinator is connecting reading with the art studio, as well. We know Dr. Seuss would have appreciated her students’ interpretations of One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

We know this studio sends the message that all forms of expression matter: everything in balance. It’s that beautiful Greek Golden Mean, isn’t it, and the Goldilocks porridge that was neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.