Financial Literacy

The Globe featured this article today about a new focus on financial literacy in the Ontario curriculum. I think it's important for kids to learn about money throughout school. This can be supported in any subject area to provide a comprehensive approach to financial literacy.

    An example of this for Visual Arts, that I would like to try, is how to plan an art show in Toronto. This would involve many related stages: planning the show, producing artwork, securing participants,  fundraising, organizing entertainment, booking a venue, promotion, establishing working relationships, opening night, sales, and a review of the overall experience from a financial perspective.

   Another example for Visual Arts is planning a small business in the arts or planning a freelance career as an independent contractor in the arts. This would involve writing a complete business plan and investigating need, cost, return, investing, borrowing and projecting results.

   Financial literacy is of course of utmost importance when students are considering post-secondary education and must be examined while addressing the careers in art lessons.

Any of these ideas would serve as the basis for a challenging and rewarding cumulative task.

Milton Glaser on the fear of failure

The Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, Sweden has produced a graduate exhibit that focuses on the fear of failure, an important subject for students and artists. Part of the project includes videos of various people discussing their views on the fear of failure, here is Milton Glaser's- his conclusion: "embrace the failure."

Group of Seven paintings stolen from Toronto gallery

The Globe featured this article about last night's robbery of paintings from a Toronto gallery, including a few from the Group of 7.

Thor Concept Art: Michael Kutsche

Here is a look at some of the concept art that went into the making of the film Thor. I enjoyed the film a lot, largely because of the visual beauty. It's fascinating to see how some of the characters and visuals come about. Here is some of Michael Kutsche's concept art for the film, and his website.